The Lake Country DockHounds (6-10) avoided the series sweep Sunday afternoon, defeating the Winnipeg Goldeyes 8-3 at Blue Cross Park.
Falling behind 6-0 after a big fifth inning for the DockHounds, the Goldeyes (7-9) were unable to recover.
That fifth inning saw three runs cross the plate for Lake Country, which was capped off by a Josh Altmann single to left field that scored both Justin Lavey and Blake Tiberi.
Tiberi was a standout for the DockHounds, compiling three hits including a two-run home run inside the right field foul pole in the third inning that opened an initial 3-0 lead.
The Goldeyes broke through in the fifth inning thanks to an RBI infield single to second from left fielder Keshawn Lynch that plated Ryan Holgate to make it 6-1.
A triple from Goldeyes’ centre fielder Miles Simington to the right field corner in the sixth scored Max Murphy from first to cut the DockHounds’ lead to 6-2. They added one more in the inning to make it 6-3 after Simington came home on a Rob Emery single to left field.
Lake Country would put the game out of reach late, adding a run on a Ryan Hernandez double to centre field in the seventh, while also adding another in the eighth on a Marcus Chiu RBI groundout to second to make it 8-3.
They Goldeyes added just one more run on a 426-foot Holgate blast to right-centre field. It was his second of the season and his second hit on the day. That made it 8-4 and that was how things ended.
DockHounds starting pitcher Bryan Bonnell (W, 2-1) threw seven innings while giving up three runs on seven hits to snag the win.
Colton Eastman (L, 2-2) was tagged with the loss after giving up six runs on seven hits over five innings of work.
“He got off to a pretty good start, then gave up a couple of home runs,” said Goldeyes manager Logan Watkins of Eastman. “Tough games, bad luck games are inevitable, but I fully expect our pitching to always bounce back if they have a game where they’re not totally satisfied with the results.”
Winnipeg will open a three-game series on the road against the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks on Tuesday, May 28 at 7:02 p.m. CDT. Zac Reininger (1-2, 4.00 ERA) will take the mound for the Goldeyes, while the RedHawks are expected to counter with left-hander Tyler Grauer (1-2, 5.06 ERA). Trevor Curl will have the pregame show on CJNU 93.7 FM and cjnu.ca at 6:30. The game will also be streamed free of charge at AABaseball.TV.
The Goldeyes will return home to face the Lincoln Saltdogs Friday, May 31 at 7:00 p.m. for a three-game weekend series.