BELOIT — After coming from behind twice to sweep an emotional doubleheader on Saturday there’s always a chance there won’t be much left in the tank for a sweltering Sunday afternoon finale at ABC Supply Stadium.
If the Beloit Sky Carp had any worries of that happening they dissolved quickly. Starter Jake Brooks came out pinpointing corners and a four-run Beloit first inning featured a majestic two-run home run by Brock Vradenburg putting the home team well on its way to an 8-3 victory over the Dayton Dragons.
There wasn’t a lot of fire coming from the Dragons the whole rain-shortened series as Beloit posted four wins in five games.
For good measure, center fielder Colby Shade raced into deep left center and came up with a highlight-reel diving catch on a ball hit by John Michael Faile with a runner on to end the sixth inning.
“I thought I had a shot to get to it,” said a grinning Shade, who was 2-for-4 with two runs scored and an RBI. “This was a great series heading into the (All-Star) break. We get a couple days to freshen up and hopefully come back even better. We still have a long season ahead. We just have to keep working hard every day.”
The Sky Carp head into the Midwest League All-Star break tied for first place in the Western Division with Quad Cities with a 12-8 record. They are off until Friday when they resume play in South Bend.
“It’s a great way to head into the break,” said winning pitcher Brooks (6-5), who struck out a season-high seven in five strong innings, many of the called-third-strike variety. “My sweeper was really good today, knowing that I needed to use it a lot today. Coming off the zone and going back into it was freezing them. They thought it was headed outside and the movement of it bent it back inside.”
Brooks said it would have been easy to have a letdown after Saturday’s sweep.
“Coming off a double-win like that which was real emotional, we did a good job coming back and throwing strikes, playing good defense and putting some good at-bats together early. We kind of punched them in the mouth right away and they never really came back from it.”
The Sky Carp went to work in the first against Dayton starter Nestor Lorant (0-7). Shade opened the game by ripping a double down the left field line and Wildreda Lara delivered a single. They both scored on a single by Connor Caskenette and he would come home on Vradenburg’s no-doubter to right field. Caskenette was 3-for-4 with two runs scored and two RBIs.
Jacob Jenkins-Cowart singled in the second and took third on an errant pickoff throw at first. Shade scored him with a single to make it 5-0.
Brooks didn’t allow a hit until the fifth when John Faile belted a one-out double. He scored on an RBI single by Jack Moss. .. Jorge’s ground-rule double bounced over the fence in right field, sending Jorge to third where he would score on a wild pitch to make it 5-3. Brooks got out of the inning with a strikeout.
The Sky Carp answered in the bottom of the inning. They loaded the bases on singles by Caskenette and Vradenburg and Miller was hit by a pitch. Fielder’s choice grounders by Jesus Hernandez and Echedry Vargas both brought in runs for a 7-2 lead.
Beloit capped its scoring in the sixth, again courtesy of Shade as he drew a walk, stole second and scored on a throwing error. He now has 36 stolen bases for the season.
“Ideally I’d like to get 50 or 60,” Shade said. “We scout the pitchers. Our baserunning coach Mason is really good at that. We have every detail. We do steal a lot of bases on this team. There’s a little bit of a rivalry going, but there is also a team goal to break the team record for steals.”
Shade is enjoying leading off in the batting order.
“I’ve usually been either leadoff or the No. 2 hole basically my entire life,” he said. “They’re both fun in their own ways. I just want to be in the lineup. Where I bat doesn’t really matter.”
Brayan Mendoza came on in relief and collected his first save of the season, throwing the final four innings and allowing just one run.
• SATURDAY: The Sky Carp rallied to edge Dayton 4-3 in the first game of a doubleheader, squandered a 5-0 lead in the nightcap only to post another 8-7 win in extra innings in the nightcap.
In the first game, Dayton took a 3-2 lead into the bottom of the sixth inning and replaced reliever Brody Jessee with Joseph Menefree to open the inning. After a strikeout, Eric Raczak drew a walk and Emaarion Boyd came on to pinch-run. Menefree threw the ball away at first on a pickoff attempt, sending Boyd to third.
Menefree got the second out with another punchout, but Caskenette singled to left to score Boyd with the tying run. That was just Beloit’s fourth hit.
Caskenette then stole second base and Jenkins-Cowart drew a walk with Caskenette taking third on a wild pitch. Another wild one by Menefree plated Caskenette with the go-ahead run.
That was enough as Justin Storm retired the side in order in the top of the seventh. Carson Milbrandt started for Beloit and went 5 2-3 innings, allowing five hits and three runs (two earned) with two walks and a whopping 11 strikeouts. Holt Jones (6-3) picked up the win, retiring just one batter in the sixth. Storm collected his third save.
In the nightcap, Beloit took a 5-0 lead in the second inning. Vradenburg had a sacrifice fly, Vargas and Shade collected RBI singles and Jesus Hernandez smacked a two-run double.
Dayton tied the game on a sacrifice fly by Carlos Sanchez in the seventh to force extra innings. The Dragons took a 7-5 lead in the eighth when Ariel Almonte had an RBI double and Jorge added an RBI single.
Yiddi Cappe opened the Beloit eighth with a single, scoring the automatic runner, Garret Forrester, from second for a 7-6 game. Cappe took second on a groundout and scored on Vradenburg’s double to tie it.
After a scoreless top of the ninth, Shade was hit by a pitch leading off the bottom of the inning. Jesus Hernandez singled, sending automatic runner Emaarion Boyd to third. With one out, Forrester smacked a game-winning sacrifice fly to left field.
Hernandez was 3-for-3 to lead Beloit’s 10-hit attack. Cappe was 2-for-4 with two runs scored and an RBI. Shade was 1-for-3 with a run scored, an RBI and his 33rd stolen base.
Noble Meyer started and pitched two scoreless innings, allowing one hit and no walks while striking out two. Brandon White allowed four runs in four innings on five hits and two walks. He struck out one. Chase Centala allowed four hits and three runs (two earned) in two innings. He didn’t allow any walks and struck out two. Colby Martin (1-0) picked up the win with a scoreless ninth with a strikeout.
The twinbill was necessitated by a rainout on Thursday. Since league rules mandate that teams can’t play back-to-back doubleheaders, Friday’s rained out game was cancelled and will not be made up.
• SUNDAY’S BOXSCORE:
BELOIT 8, DAYTON 3
Dayton…000 020 001 — 3 7 3
Beloit…..410 021 00x — 8 10 1
DAYTON (ab-r-h-rbi) — Jorge, cf 5-0-1-0; Stephan, 1b, 4-0-1-1; Confidan, rf, 4-0-1-0; Graham, 3b, 5-0-0-0; Sanchez, ss, 4-0-1-0; Stovall, 2b, 3-0-1-0; Faile, cf, 4-1-1-0; Moss, dh, 2-2-1-1; Almonte, lf, 4-0-0-0. Totals: 35-3-7-2.
BELOIT (ab-r-h-rbi) — Shade, cf, 4-2-2-1; Lara, ss, 5-1-2-0; Rataczak, dh, 4-0-0-0; Caskenette, cf, 4-2-3-2; Vradenburg, 1b, 3-2-2-2; Miller, 2b. 3-0-0-0; Hernandez, lf, 3-0-0-1; Vargas, 3b, 4-0-0-1; Jenkins-Cowart, rf, 4-1-1-0. Totals: 34-8-10-7.
E: Lorant, Graham, Sanchez, Miller. LOB: Dayton 10, Beloit 6. 2B: Faile, Shade. SB: Stephan (2), Lara (14), Caskenette 2 (10), Vradenburg (12), Shade (34). CS: Lara, Caskenette.
Pitching (ip-h-r-er-bb-so): Dayton, Lorant (L,0-7) 4.0-10-7-6-2-1; Adcock 2.0-0-1-0-1-2; Machuca 1.0-0-0-0-0-2; Cannon 1.0-0-0-0-0-1. Beloit, Brooks (W, 6-5) 5.0-3-2-2-2-7; Mendoza (S,1) 4.0-4-1-1-1-7.
WP: Brooks. HBP: Confidan by Brooks; Moss by Mendoza; Miller by Lorant. T: 2:36. Att.: 2,034.
