Carson Sands struggled against Lake County Thursday night in a 9-7 Cubs loss. (Photo by Emma Reese)

SOUTH BEND – Mitch Longo broke the game open with a bases-clearing double in the top of the second and Emmanuel Tapia homered in the fourth as the Lake County Captains defeated the South Bend Cubs 9-7 in front of a crowd of 5,160 on Thursday night at Four Winds Field.

Carson Sands (L, 0-3) got the start for the Cubs and his control deserted him early on as he walked second baseman Miguel Eladio with one out. Eladio scooted on to second on a wild pitch and with two outs, designated hitter Li-Jen Chu doubled down the left field line to give Lake County, the Class-A affiliate of the Cleveland Indians, an early 1-0 lead.

Sands’ struggles would continue in the second inning as the Captains extended their lead to 5-0. Right fielder Conner Capel singled to lead off the inning. With one out, Capel stole second before catcher Logan Ice walked. Capel and Ice successfully pulled off a double steal and Cubs catcher Tyler Payne’s throw to second went into center field, allowing Capel to score. Two more walks followed to load the bases and with two outs, Longo launched a double off the right center field wall to score all three runners and give the Captains a 5-0 lead.

Lake County (16-16, 43-58) continued to add to its lead in the top of the third and fourth innings off of Cubs reliever Yapson Gomez. Shortstop Luke Wakamatsu singled home left fielder Michael Tinsley for a run in the third. In the top of the fourth, Tapia crushed a ball over the right field wall for a two run homer. Capel and Tinsley followed with back to back singles before Ice singled into a strange double play. Ice grounded through the left side scoring Capel. The throw to the plate skipped by the catcher but was backed up by Gomez who threw down to second to catch Ice in a rundown. Ice was tagged out heading back to the bag, and first baseman Austin Upshaw smartly threw over to third to catch Tinsley off the bag and end the inning with the Captains up 9-0.

South Bend (15-18, 54-48) got on the board in the bottom of the fourth inning off of Captains starter Sean Brady. Upshaw singled with one out and left fielder Kevonte Mitchell followed with another single, advancing Upshaw to second. With two outs in the inning, center fielder D.J. Wilson lined a single up the middle that scored Upshaw and made the score 9-1.

Micah Miniard (W, 3-9) entered the game for the Captains in the fifth and tossed three scoreless innings before allowing three runs in the bottom of the eighth inning. Singles by second baseman Yeiler Peguero, Mitchell, and shortstop Isaac Paredes loaded the bases and Wilson scored Peguero on a grounder to first. Payne followed by lacing a two-run single to right that scored both Mitchell and Paredes to cut the lead to 9-4.

The Cubs threatened in the 9^th inning as Miniard all of a sudden lost his control. Miniard walked the first three batters of the inning to load the bases and forced the Captains to call on Dalbert Siri (S, 11) to try to close out the game. Siri struck out the first two batters he faced but Paredes kept the Cubs alive by lacing a two-run single to left that cut the Captains lead to 9-6. With Wilson at the plate, a wild pitch scored Peguero from third to cut the lead to 9-7 but Siri won a 9 pitch battle by striking out Wilson for the final out of the game.