Defensive miscues doom Loons

The Great Lakes Loons got clutch hits Thursday night, they just weren’t able to transform them into a victory as their defense betrayed them and the Loons fell 6-5 to the South Bend Silver Hawks in the 15th sellout of the season at Dow Diamond.

South Bend opened the scoring in the second inning when Jo Jo Batten launched a three-run homer to give South Bend a 3-0 lead. The Loons countered with Erik Kanaby’s RBI single to make it 3-1 in the third inning. Jovanny Rosario lined a clutch, opposite-field, go-ahead, three-run double to clear the bases and give the Loons a 4-3 lead in the fifth.

In the seventh, South Bend picked up a pair of runs when the Loons infield had trouble on three separate occasions to turn a double play, giving the Silver Hawks a 5-4 lead.

First baseman Jaime Ortiz had two chances to turn double plays in the frame, but he dropped the baseball trying to field a potential twin killing he had started, then threw wildly to second base later in the inning to allow the go-ahead run to score. Shortstop Brandon Taylor’s chance to turn two scooted away from him and helped South Bend put together the rally in the inning.

South Bend added an insurance run when Eli Rumler laced an RBI double to left-center to give South Bend a 6-4 lead.

The run would prove vital as Rosario scored for Great Lakes on a wild pitch in the bottom of the eighth to make it a 6-5 ballgame.

Loons’ starter Juan Cedeno picked up the loss after pitching six innings allowing five runs to fall to 0-3 on the season. South Bend starter Tom Layne pitched six frames, allowing four runs in recording the victory, upping his record to 6-4. Clay Zavada came on to pitch a perfect ninth, recording his seventh save of the season.

The Loons are now 15-27 in one-run games.

Loons and Silver Hawks continue their four-game series Friday night from Dow Diamond. Game time is scheduled for 7 p.m.