South Bend Cubs can’t complete comeback, fall to Captains 8-5

SOUTH BEND, Ind. (South Bend Cubs) - Bailey Horn made his debut as a starter in the Cubs system, and the Captains seemed determined to spoil it from the get-go. Horn struck out the Captain’s leadoff hitter, Christian Cairo, on four pitches before allowing back-to-back home runs to José Tena and Jhonkensy Noel. He struck out the next two batters, but Joe Naranjo hit another solo homer to grow the Lake County lead to 3-0 in the second.

Horn struck out five in his first start, but the homers kept coming for Lake County. Horn allowed three solo shots, and Noel hit a second blast off of Dalton Stambaugh to make it 4-0 in the fifth. After that, Stambaugh shut things down on the mound, with the home run being the only run he surrendered.

After six scoreless innings, South Bend’s bats woke up.

The first six batters in the bottom of the seventh reached base safely on five base hits and a walk. Bryce Windham led off with a double and Liam Spence reached base for the first time since his South Bend Cubs debut.

Edmond Americaan followed him up, and it looked like his chopper up the middle would kill South Bend’s momentum. It did not. José Tena fielded the grounder and was unsure whether to throw home, step on second, or fire to first.

His indecision would prove costly.

Liam Spence slid into second safely before Tena broke late to the bag to try and get the force out. He then threw to first entirely too late, with the first run already in and Americaan long safe at the first base bag.

With the score now 4-1, the Cubs barrage continued. Luis Vazquez walked on four pitches, and Yohendrick Pinango drove in two more with a single that cleared Tena on a bounce at short. One pitch later, Tyler Durna blooped a double down the left field line and tied things up at four before an out was recorded. Jared Janczak retired the next three, but it was all square going into the eighth for the second straight night.

After a scoreless eighth inning, history repeated itself in South Bend. This time in the form of a Quentin Holmes RBI triple, Lake County took the lead back in the top of the ninth and made the score 5-4. The Captains’ lead grew two batters later, as Tena cleared the bases on a single to left to make it 7-4. Tena would score on a wild pitch to bring the score up to 8-4.

Alexander Canario kept things interesting in the ninth, launching his seventh home run since joining the Cubs last month to cut the deficit to 8-5. But the two-out bomb wouldn’t be enough, as the Captains held on to win 8-5.

Bryce Windham (3-4, 2 2B, R) continued his scorching end to the season, and Yohendrick Pinango (1-5, 2 RBI) drove in his first two runs at Four Winds Field. Pinango extended his hit streak to his first eight games with the South Bend Cubs. Dalton Stambaugh pitched great in relief, throwing 4.1 innings, allowing one run on 3 hits with three strikeouts.

Next Up: Max Bain (3-8, 5.65 ERA) vs Hunter Gaddis (4-8, 4.11 ERA). South Bend tries for their first win of the series in a battle of two 6′5 starters. The Cubs are halfway done with their final homestand of the series, and Friday is the first of two fireworks nights to finish off the season. Get your tickets now at southbendcubs.com.