[dropcap]W[/dropcap]est Michigan Whitecaps were not able to close out Chaz Frank and the Lansing Lugnuts in a game featuring multiple late lead changes Thursday night at Cooley Law School Stadium.
West Michigan Whitecaps (3-4, 44-33) and Lansing (4-3, 36-40) were tied at 4-4 before three late-lead changes in a three-game series. Frank was the hero for the Lugnuts, making a crucial defensive play of the game in the fourth inning and going 3-for-5 at the plate with the biggest hit of the night in the bottom of the ninth.
The Whitecaps built an early 4-1 lead on the verge of winning in the top of the fourth. With loaded bases and two outs, Raph Rhymes took a deep fly ball to left-center field – but Frank’s running it down kept the Lugnuts in the game.
Lansing went on to tie things up with three runs. The home team later got back in the lead with an unearned run in the seventh inning, after Frank singled home David Harris 5-4.
West Michigan didn’t back down, however. In the top of the eighth, Willy Adames battled back from an 0-2 count to draw a one-out walk. Francisco Contreras earned a single and the runners advanced to second and third. Wynton Bernard followed with a clutch two-out, two-run single that staked the Whitecaps to a 6-5 lead.
Reliever Zac Reininger began his round in search of the final six outs and retired the first five batters. Facing a one-run lead and two outs in the bottom of the ninth, Harris extended the ballgame with a liner to center that rattled in and out of the glove of a diving Austin Schotts.
Next was Frank, who worked the count full as Lansing went down to their final strike. The leadoff man blasted Reininger’s pay-off pitch to deep right-center field. Schotts ranged all the way to the warning track in the deepest part of the ballpark, but the ball glanced off the tip of his glove and dropped in for a game-tying triple.
Shortly after, Frank took Lugnuts for a 7-6 walk-off win.
The Whitecaps’ early 4-1 lead was built in part thanks to recent draftee Grayson Greiner, who was 2-for-4 with a double and a home run. In the second inning, he drilled his first professional homer in just his fifth pro game since being taken in the third round of the 2014 draft by the Detroit Tigers.
The Whitecaps return to Fifth Third Ballpark on Friday night to start a seven-game homestand with a 7:00 p.m. first pitch against the Bowling Green Hot Rods. RHP Jonathon Crawford (3-2, 2.80) is scheduled to pitch for West Michigan against LHP Bruedlin Suero (N/A) of Bowling Green. It will be a Tiger Friday featuring former All-Star Glenn Wilson with a pre-game Living Baseball Card giveaway. Season, group and individual tickets can be reserved by calling the Whitecaps’ front office at 616-784-4131 or visiting www.whitecapsbaseball.com.
