| Saturday, April 24, 2010 For Immediate Release |
Contact: Jesse Goldberg-Strassler ( 517) 485-4500 ext. 233 |
Dominguez's double does in Dragons, 9-8
LANSING, Mich. – In a wild affair that saw six lead changes, three blown saves, and four brilliant relievers get battered, Oliver Dominguez lined a walk-off double in the bottom of the tenth to lift the Lansing Lugnuts (10-7) to a 9-8 win over the Dayton Dragons (9-8) on Saturday night at Cooley Law School Stadium.
The decisive blow came off of Dayton closer Donnie Joseph (2-1), who entered the game having given up only one hit and no runs in seven previous outings but served up three hits in the span of six batters to a Lugnuts team missing Brad Glenn and Mark Sobolewski due to injury.
With one out in the tenth, Kenny Wilson lined a single into the left field. Dominguez followed by drilling the first pitch he saw from Joseph into the right-center gap, scoring Wilson and touching off a celebration on the middle of the diamond.
It was the second big double of the game for the Lugnuts designated hitter a day after his 21st birthday. With Lansing trailing 6-5 in the eighth inning, Oliver Dominguez cracked a two-run double off Nick Christiani.
A sacrifice fly from A.J. Jimenez scored Dominguez to give the Lugnuts an 8-6 lead going to the ninth, but Dayton tallied twice against Brian Slover -- keyed by Chris Richburg's game-tying triple -- to send the game into extras.
Slover (2-0) recovered to pitch a perfect tenth, picking up the win.
The game saw 30 combined base hits, 18 by the Lugnuts. Dominguez, Sean Ochinko, and Ryan Goins each had three hits, with Ochinko slugging his first home run of the season.
For the Dragons, Richburg notched four RBIs to give himself 18 for the young season.
The Lugnuts go for the sweep of the three-game series on a Sunday Kids Day/BWL Autograph Day beginning at 2:05 p.m. Lansing right-hander Scott Gracey (0-0, 3.86) gets the spot-start, opposing Dayton right-hander Brian Pearl (1-0, 1.72).
Tickets to the April 26th Crosstown Showdown as well as the entire Lugnuts’ 2010 home schedule are available for purchase online at www.lansinglugnuts.com, at the stadium box office, and by calling 517-485-4500.
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