Rosemont, Ill. — The Lake Country DockHounds surrendered a three-run lead twice Tuesday night, failing to hold on in the ninth and tenth innings in a 7-6 loss Tuesday night to the Chicago Dogs.
Off the heels of being swept by the rival, lake Country jumped to a 3-0 lead by the second inning. A Daunte Stuart walk paved way for a Ryan Hernandez RBI-double before Brian Rey singled him home on the next pitch in the first inning. Then, the first three reached in the second to set up a Ray Zuberer III sacrifice fly. Lake Country did not get another hit with a runner on until extras.
Chris Jefferson dealt in his return to the rotation after two months. He fired 5.2 innings of one-run ball without issuing a walk until the sixth inning while striking out five. Beau Philip finished the sixth, and if not for an error, would have pitched a scoreless seventh inning.
Eric Torres struck out a pair to hold the one-run lead in the eighth inning, but Dusty Stroup tied the game with a home run on the first pitch of the ninth inning. Robert Gsellman proceeded to strike out the next three and send the game to the tenth inning.
In the top of the tenth, Brian O’Keefe started at second base with the middle of the order due up against a depleted Dogs bullpen. Brian Rey walked with one out and Luke Roskam walked with two down, the 10th free pass drawn by the DockHounds of the night. Demetrius Sims with the bases loaded hit a fly ball off the wall and cleared the bases to re-up Lake Country’s lead to three.
With Bryce Bonnin entering and the tying run on deck, a dropped pop-up in shallow right field became the DockHounds second error of the night, and it was costly. Brantley Bell, who was 0-4 and hitless in his previous four games, got to a high fastball and cleared the left field wall for a game-tying home run. T.J. Hopkins singled with one out and stole second base to make Stroup the hero again with a walk-off single.
The DockHounds will be back in action Wednesday night with Kelvan Pilot looking to even the series.
