Lambo’s bat leads Loons to win

The Loons needed every one of Andrew Lambo’s three doubles in Sunday’s series finale against Dayton. His final two-bagger to the wall in left-center field in the bottom of the ninth scored Preston Mattingly, enabling the Loons to walk off with a dramatic 4-3 win in front of 3,218 Loons fans at Dow Diamond.

The Dragons got on the board first in the fourth inning when Mike McKennon launched a two-run homer to right, his first of the season, making it 2-0. Dayton added another run in the fifth on a Todd Frazier RBI single.

The Loons got on the board thanks to Lambo’s first double, scoring Mattingly to make the score 3-1. In the eighth, Lambo scored the Loons’ second run on Alex Garbedian’s bases loaded walk against Dragons reliever Terrell Young.

Then in the ninth, the Loons started their comeback when Jovanny Rosario singled and advanced to second on Erik Kanaby’s sacrifice bunt. Mattingly then lofted a single down the right field line to tie the game at three. Lambo then followed by lining a pitch to the left-center field gap, scoring Mattingly all the way from first.

Steven Johnson started for the Loons throwing 4 2/3 innings allowing seven hits and three runs while striking out four. Jon Dutton came on in relief and pitched 3 1/3 innings without allowing a hit and striking out five. Miguel Sanfler pitched a scoreless ninth striking out two to record his first win of the season.

The Loons improve to 3-1 while the Dragons fall to 1-3.

Sunday’s win comes on the heals of the Loons’ first loss Saturday night. After falling behind 3-2 in the eight inning, the Loons responded with a Preston Mattingly home run to tie the score. Despite threatening, they failed to score in the ninth, and Todd Frazier belted a home run in the top of the tenth off of Matt Sartor to propel the Dayton Dragons to a 4-3 win.

The Loons hit the road for a 10-game road swing beginning with the defending Midwest League Champion West Michigan Whitecaps from Fifth-Third Ballpark Monday night. Game time is 6:35 p.m. Daigoro Rondon (1-0, 9.00 ERA) is scheduled to start for the Loons.