Dragons 4, South Bend 3
May 27, 2015
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South Bend (R-H-E): 3-9-2
Dayton (R-H-E): 4-5-0
WP: Mark Armstrong (3-1)
LP: Trevor Clifton (1-4)
Sv: Conor Krauss (1)
HR: Dayton: Paul Kronenfeld (2nd, 1 on base in fourth inning).
HR: South Bend: Yasiel Balaguert (2nd, 0 on base in eighth inning).
Dayton, Ohio—Paul Kronenfeld belted a two-run home run to lead the Dayton Dragons to a 4-3 victory over the South Bend Cubs on Wednesday night. A crowd of 8,023 attended the game at Fifth Third Field.
The win was the Dragons second straight over the Cubs in the series that concludes Thursday. The Dragons pulled to within two games of first place with the victory. They remain tied for third with West Michigan, trailing co-leaders Bowling Green and Lansing.
Dayton’s Gavin LaValley doubled to start the bottom of the second inning and eventually scored on Garrett Boulware’s single to right to give the Dragons an early lead. But South Bend scored two times in the top of the fourth to jump in front, 2-1.
In the bottom of the fourth, LaValley walked to start the inning. Two batters later, Kronenfeld came to the plate with two outs and blasted a home run to right-center field, his second homer of the year, to give the Dragons a 3-2 lead. The Dragons added another run in the fifth on a bases loaded walk to Boulware that made it 4-2.
South Bend battled back. Yasiel Balaguert hit a two-out solo home run in the eighth to pull the Cubs to within a run at 4-3. In the ninth, Dragons reliever Conor Krauss retired the first two batters before surrendering a base hit and a walk. But Krauss got Andrew Ely to fly out to shallow center field to end the game as Krauss earned his first save.
Dragons starting pitcher Mark Armstrong (3-1) earned the victory. He worked five and one-third innings, allowing seven hits and two runs with two walks and four strikeouts. Reliever Joe Mantoni replaced Armstrong with two men on base and one out in the sixth and worked out of the jam before tossing a perfect seventh inning.
The Dragons finished with five hits by five different players. Kronenfeld’s homer extended his hitting streak to six straight games.
The Dragons will try for the series sweep on Thursday at 7:00 p.m. at Fifth Third Field. Tyler Mahle (4-3, 3.08) will start for Dayton against South Bend’s Ryan Williams (4-1, 0.59).
Thursday’s game will be televised on WHIO digital channel 7.2, MeTV (Time Warner Cable channels 23 and 372).
All Dragons games are broadcast on radio on Fox Sports 980 WONE and on the internet at wone.com. Games are also available on the Dayton Dragons mobile app.
Notes: The Dragons are 19-3 this season when they score at least four runs…They are 8-0 at home when scoring the first run of the game, and 14-7 at home overall.
