In front of a season-high sell out crowd of 9,798, Domingo Leyba was able to send all of the West Michigan fans home happy as he drilled a walk-off double down the first base line to not only give the Whitecaps a 3-2 win in 10 innings, but also a series sweep over the Dayton Dragons at Fifth Third Ballpark.
With the win, West Michigan (39-22, 80-51) won for the seventh time in their last eight games and improved their overall record to a season-best 29 games over .500. The victory is also their 10th straight victory over Dayton (28-33, 64-65) to finish their season series with a 13-4 record.
In what was their franchise-record setting 19th extra-inning game of the year, West Michigan’s game winning rally started when Jose Zambrano led the bottom of the 10th inning with a bunt single before advancing to second base on a sacrifice bunt by Wynton Bernard.
Leyba drilled the first pitch he saw past the first baseman to score Zambrano and give the Whitecaps a 3-2 victory over the Dragons.
Julio Felix (3-2) earned the win for West Michigan after pitching a scoreless inning in the top of the 10th.
Zack Weiss (2-3) took the loss for Dayton despite not allowing a hit in the first three innings he pitched. He was charged with one run on two hits over 3.1 innings while striking out five.
The Whitecaps struck first in the game, but were unable to hold onto an early 2-0 lead after Holm scored two runs early in the game which included his team-leading 10th home run, a solo shot in the second inning.
Artie Lewicki made his first professional start for West Michigan and threw five shutout innings, allowing just two hits before giving way to the bullpen.
The 2-0 lead vanished in the seventh inning when Dayton’s Jonathan Reynoso launched a two-out triple to right center that scored a run. Nick Benedetto followed with a single up the middle to score Reynoso, tying the game at 2-2.
The Whitecaps start their final road trip of the regular season with a 2:05 p.m. game on Sunday afternoon against the South Bend Silver Hawks. RHP Jonathon Crawford (7-3, 3.03) is scheduled to pitch for West Michigan against LHP Anthony Banda (8-6, 3.26) of South Bend).
