Midland, MI - After six innings of play on Sunday afternoon at Dow Diamond, the South Bend Cubs trailed the Great Lakes Loons by a 4-0 score. Loons starting pitcher Tyler Gough had just finished off six scoreless innings on the mound, and it looked like Great Lakes was going to take five of six games away from the Cubs in this week’s road series. A late, heroic comeback effort from the Cubs turned the tides of that storyline, with South Bend scoring seven unanswered runs to win the game, and salvage the final game of the series.
The Loons starter Gough fired three perfect innings to begin his outing, as he matched up with Cubs lefty Ethan Flanagan in the starting pitching battle. Flanagan was able to hang zeroes in his first two innings despite the Loons having a baserunner in each, but Great Lakes opened the scoring via an RBI single by Jaron Elkins in the bottom of the 3rd. Great Lakes could have had more in that inning, if not for a 5-2-3 double play turned by South Bend to end the frame.
South Bend picked up its first hit on a single by Kade Snell in the 4th, but remained scoreless as the game went to the bottom of the 6th. That’s when Great Lakes scored its three runs in that inning.
Down 4-0, South Bend went back to work against Gough in the top of the 7th. He had worked his six shutout innings, but allowed a Snell double to start that inning. After a Matt Halbach walk, Brennan Hudson stepped up and rocketed his first professional home run, a three-run shot, over the right-center field wall. Later in the inning, Geuri Lubo evened the game on a solo home run. Both of Lubo’s home runs with South Bend have come on a Sunday afternoon in a visiting ballpark, with the last being in Dayton on April 25.
Tied at 4-4, South Bend continued to throw the ball well. JP Wheat earned the victory with a scoreless top of the 7th inning along with two strikeouts.
In the top of the 8th, it was Hudson again capping off a career-day in his young career. The Chicago Cubs 20th round pick this summer out of Georgia gave South Bend the lead via an RBI single to make it 5-4. It was a four RBI game for Hudson.
The bottom of the 8th was a shutout frame tossed by Jose Romero. The right-hander worked through that inning despite the Loons putting the tying run at second base. In the 9th, South Bend was gifted a pair of runs thanks to two key Loons errors. But the rally was sparked by back-to-back singles to begin the frame by Jose Escobar and Angel Cepeda. Snell picked up his third hit of the game in the 9th inning as well.
With two insurance tallies in hand, South Bend took the 7-4 lead to the bottom of the 9th. Romero worked another scoreless inning, and struck out both Emil Morales and Elkins to end the game.
The comeback victory gave the Cubs their second win of the week, and now the Cubs will head home to start a six-game series with the West Michigan Whitecaps on Tuesday night at 7:05 PM. With Great Lakes losing the game, they fall one game behind the Whitecaps in the East Division second-half playoff race. South Bend will now see the Whitecaps, who have the division lead, for the first time this season at Four Winds Field. The Cubs played six games at LMCU Ballpark in May, winning five of six games.