Playoff Recap 9/14: Captains Advance, Clippers Win Game 1

Photo credit: Lianna Holub/IPI

Captains Win 6-1, Championship Series Bound

Lake County put together a monumental team effort on Tuesday night at Dow Diamond defeating Great Lakes 6-1 the wrap up the Eastern Division Title. The Captains will head west to Clinton, Iowa for a best of five series with the Lumberkings starting Wednesday September 14th at 7:30PM for the Midwest League Championship.

Vidal Nuno was fantastic in his start against the Loons tossing 5.1 innings giving up just one run on five hits, walking three and striking out six as he picked up the win.

Lake County jumped out early scoring three runs in the second inning. Greg Folgia singled to drive in Roberto Perez for the first run of the game. Argenis Martinez hit into a fielder’s choice driving in Jason Smit. Delvi Cid capped things off with a single to right scoring Martinez.

Casey Frawley hit his first homerun of the post season leading off the third inning with a solo homerun to leftfield giving the Captains a 4-0 lead.

Ted Kubiak the Captains’ skipper pushed all the right buttons against the Loons. Owen Dew pitched 1.1 innings giving up just one hit and walked one, after being roughed up the night before. Jeremy Johnson was stellar working 1.1 as well, walking one and striking out three. Jose Flores entered the game in the ninth with two on and nobody out and retired three straight to close out the game.

Lake County heads to Iowa, to take on Clinton for the Midwest League Championship, in a best of five series beginning Wednesday night at 7:30PM. The Captains start RHP Jason Knapp (1-0) against the Lumberkings’ RHP Yoervis Medina (1-0).

Midwest League Championship Series (all times eastern)

Game 1: Wednesday 9/15 @ Clinton 7:30PM
Game 2: Thursday 9/16 @ Clinton 7:30PM
Game 3: Saturday 9/18 @ Lake County 6:30PM
Game 4: Sunday 9/19 @ Lake County 6:30PM
Game 5: Monday 9/20 @ Lake County 6:30PM

Clippers return to IL finals with a bang

After enduring the longest drought between Governors' Cup games in franchise history, the Clippers acted like they had to make up for some lost time Tuesday night at Huntington Park, jumping all over the Durham Bulls early and taking game one of the best-of-five series, 18-5.

Jose Constanza singled, stole a base and then came home on a Cord Phelps single to open the scoring, but that was just the start of a big first frame for the hosts. Wes Hodges hit a two-run home run to the deepest part of the ballpark, scoring Phelps. Jared Goedert later doubled to score Jason Kipnis (who singled in his first Triple-A at bat after being called up to Columbus to replace Drew Sutton, who moved up to Cleveland) and Jerad Head rounded the five-run inning with a single to plate Goedert.

Bulls starter Richard De Los Santos (0-2) was ejected in the third inning for hitting Hodges. On the other side, it was smooth sailing for David Huff (1-0), who didn't allow a base runner until a lead-off single in the fifth. The Bulls would score an unearned run in that inning, but it paled in comparison to what the Clippers did in the bottom half.

Ezequiel Carrera led-off the seven-hit inning with a triple. RBIs from Hodges, Head (2), Luke Carlin, Josh Rodriguez, Constanza and then Carrera all added up to a seven-run stanza, with six of those runs coming off of Durham reliever Darin Downs.

Head added a three-run homer in the sixth inning, to give him a three-hit, six-RBI night. By the end of that inning, Columbus had 15 runs off of 18 hits - and they weren't done.

When Goedert followed that up with two-run blast in the seventh, Columbus had set a new franchise mark for runs in a postseason game. Their 17 runs surpassed the old mark of 15, set back in 1983. They made it 18 runs when Carlin hit a solo bomb in the eighth, which answered a meaningless grand slam from Justin Ruggiano in the top half of that inning.

In total, Columbus scored their 18 runs off of 20 hits, and every starter had at least two of those hits, and everyone scored at least one run.

For an encore, the Clippers will play at Huntington Park for the final time in 2010, when they host the Bulls in game two on Wednesday night. Columbus right-hander Zach McAllister is scheduled to take to the mound opposite Durham's Anuery Rodriguez.

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