SOUTH BEND, Ind. – Cole Mathis knocked a two-run homer to break a scoreless deadlock in the sixth inning, and the South Bend Cubs (14-12) topped the Lansing Lugnuts (11-18), 3-1, on Wednesday afternoon at Four Winds Field.
Lansing starter Samuel Dutton fired five scoreless innings, but he was matched by South Bend’s Koen Moreno (four innings) and Jackson Brockett (two innings).
Abel Mercedes relieved Dutton for the home sixth and walked Cameron Sisneros to bring up Mathis, who swatted his second home run of the year to left. It was just the second home run Mercedes had ever allowed in pro baseball spanning 110 games pitched, 176 1/3 innings and 640 batters faced.
Drew Bowser added an RBI double three batter’s later for a 3-0 lead.
Ryan Magdic relieved Mercedes and combined with Riley Huge to blank the Cubs over the next 2 2/3 innings (including an unusual play in which South Bend left fielder Leonel Espinoza lined out to third on a bounced Huge curve).
But the Nuts could only manage one run, a run-scoring wild pitch in the eighth inning, in suffering their second straight loss in the series.
In defeat, Gunner Gouldsmith, Davis Diaz, Bobby Boser, Carlos Franco and Pedro Pineda each collected a single, and Dylan Fien earned a pair of walks.
Zane Taylor starts the third game of the six-game road series at 7:05 p.m. Thursday, opposed by Cubs right-hander Eli Jerzembeck in his Midwest League debut.
The Lugnuts play in South Bend through Sunday, May 10, returning home from May 12-17 to host the Quad Cities River Bandits. For tickets and more information, call (517) 485-4500 or visit www.milb.com/lansing.
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