Dragons sweep doubleheader at Fort Wayne

The Dayton Dragons got back-to-back home runs from Hector Rodriguez and Cam Collier in the 10th inning of the first game of a doubleheader Thursday night, and then completed a sweep with outstanding pitching in Game 2, defeating the host Fort Wayne TinCaps by scores of 10-7 and 3-1.

The Dragons earned their first doubleheader sweep of the season after splitting their first three. All four doubleheaders played this season have come on the road.

In the first game, the Dragons and TinCaps were tied 2-2 at the end of the seventh inning in a game scheduled for seven frames. Carter Graham, just called up from Daytona, hit a second-inning home run in his first at-bat with the Dragons.

The Dragons took a 3-2 lead with one run in the eighth inning, but Fort Wayne tied the game in the bottom half of the eighth.  he Dragons scored three runs in the top of the ninth, getting a big two-out, two-run single from Cade Hunter to go ahead 6-3, but Fort Wayne again responded with three runs in the bottom of the ninth, all with two outs against Dayton closer Luis Mey.

In the top of the 10th, Sal Stewart delivered a run-scoring single to give the Dragons a 7-6 lead, and Hector Rodriguez followed with a two-run home run, his sixth homer of the year. Cam Collier followed the Rodriguez blast with a home run to left field, his 12th homer of the year to give the Dragons a 10-6 lead. Fort Wayne scored one run in the bottom of the 10th and had the bases loaded with one out before Dragons reliever John Murphy worked out of further trouble to close out the Dayton win.

In the second game, Dayton’s Leo Balcazar delivered a big two-run single in the sixth inning while Dragons pitchers Easton Sikorski and Brody Jessee combined on a fine pitching performance. Sikorski, in his first start of the year, allowed one run on two hits over four innings. Jessee (5-1) worked the final three innings without allowing a hit or run, striking out four to earn the win.

Stewart and Rodriguez each had three hits in the doubleheader for the Dragons.

The two games featured a total of 17 innings of baseball with a combined game time of five hours and 10 minutes.

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