SOUTH BEND – Early offense allowed the South Bend Cubs to extend their winning streak to five games after an 8-3 home win over the Great Lakes Loons.

For the sixth straight game South Bend scored first thanks to power from the top of their order. The reigning Midwest League Player of the Week Eloy Jimenez hit a two-run home run in the first inning. The ball landed just shy of the flag poles in deep left-center field.

Jimenez now has six home runs over his last eleven games and leads South Bend this season with seven.

Tyler Alamo hit his first professional home run Monday at Lake County. He didn’t wait long for number two. Three at-bats after number one, his second home run in two days was a long drive that landed to the right of the Cubs Den in left field. The two-run home run capped a five-run third inning as South Bend extended their lead to 7-1.

South Bend has now hit sixteen home runs over their last fifteen games after hitting only six long balls over their first 28 contests.

Cubs starter Justin Steele improved to 3-5 after producing a five and two-thirds inning of three run baseball.

The Cubs bullpen took care of the rest as Kyle Miller retired all seven hitters he faced. James Norwood worked around a two-out walk to retire the Loons in the ninth.

Andrew Ely led off four innings for South Bend and reached base three times. The Cubs second baseman doubled and scored in the first and third innings while producing a run scored after a walk in the fourth inning.

South Bend has now won five straight games and are a season’s best eleven games over the five-hundred mark.

Game two of the series versus the Loons is Wednesday morning at 10:35 as the Cubs pitch left-hander Kyle Twomey (0-3, 4.75) against Great Lakes right-hander Isaac Anderson (3-1, 3.21).