By WJBC Staff
PEORIA – Trailing 5-0 after the top of the first, the Peoria Chiefs rallied twice Tuesday night to stun the Lake County Captains with an 8-6 victory.
The win moves the Chiefs to 25-13 in the second half and 58-48 overall.
The Captains batted around in the very first frame and plated five runs against Chiefs starter Dewin Perez. Greg Allen led off with a single, Yonathan Mendoza singled and Bobby Bradley launched his Midwest League-leading 19th home run of the season for a 3-0 Captains lead. Taylor Murphy walked, Francisco Mejia singled and David Armendariz singled to load the bases. Ordomar Valdez laced a two-run single to make it 5-0.
The Chiefs came all the way back with a five-run frame of their own in the fourth against Captains starter Jordan Milbrath. Darren Seferina reached on an error, Paul DeJong singled and Oscar Mercado plated Seferina with a single to make it 5-1. After an Alex DeLeon strikeout, Harrison Bader crushed a three-run homer to cut the deficit to 5-4. Brian O’Keefe, the very next batter, also took Milbrath deep to tie the game at five.
The Captains regained the lead in the sixth inning after Allen singled and advanced to second on a throwing error, which chased Perez from the game. Jhonny Polanco came in relief and allowed the go-ahead run to score on a sacrifice fly by Anthony Santander to make it 6-5 Lake County.
The Chiefs came roaring back in the seventh to take their first lead of the game. DeJong singled, Mercado reached on an error and the Chiefs took advantage of another defensive miscue. DeLeon singled on a ground ball to second baseman Valdez who threw the ball away at first, allowing DeJong to score easily while Mercado booked it home after the ball was thrown to second trying to get DeLeon. Mercado scored the game-winning run on a close play at the plate for a 7-6 Chiefs lead. O’Keefe gave the Chiefs an insurance run with a bloop single to score DeLeon to make it 8-6.
Perez allowed six runs on 10 hits and three walks, striking out four over five innings of work. Polanco (3-3) allowed no runs on one hit and one walk, fanning three in two and two-thirds innings of relief. Steve Sabatino retired the final batter of the eighth inning and Kyle Grana hurled a perfect ninth for his 16th save of the season.
