In their first 10 games against the Lake County Captains this season, the TinCaps have won just twice. In two games this weekend, they doubled that total behind an attack as good as the entire season.

The TinCaps won the last two clashes of the six-game series against the Captains at Parkview Field, culminating with a 7-6 win on Sunday in front of an announced crowd of 3,132 that included 16 hits for Fort Wayne and another solid. suddenly booming bullpen performance.

The TinCaps (16-19) combined 29 hits in their two weekend wins, earning them a six-game series division. It was the team’s fourth consecutive series division.

“I’m proud the guys come out and finish strong,” said manager Anthony Contreras. “We always say it’s not how you start, it’s how you end, and these guys are flocking together (at bats), our pen starts to ramp up and close some innings, and that It’s the second game in a row now that everyone in the lineup is contributing in one way or another.

The game was tied at the end of the eighth when Fort Wayne’s Yorman Rodriguez bounced a middle single through an infield to score Reinaldo Ilarraza from third with the go-ahead.

TinCaps closest, Carter Loewen, won his sixth league-leading save with a scoreless ninth. Receiver Jonny Homza, who went 2 for 4 with a step, sent off Quentin Holmes stealing second after Holmes started with a single, one of the two Homza runners cut in the game.

The TinCaps took the early lead with a six-point lift in the second inning, including four straight hits with two runs batted in by Tirso Ornelas, Rodriguez, Seamus Curran and Justin Lopez.

By the end of the inning, the TinCaps had scored 21 points in their previous 14 innings.

“Our batting coach Jonny Mathews was just talking to us about getting a few runs early, and we did,” said Ethan Skender, who started the inning with a single and scored 3 for 4 in the game. “It puts pressure on the other team and it’s a good start to the day. … The hits were falling (in the second one) and it was a lot of fun. It was awesome. “

Starting pitcher Anderson Espinoza served a triple and RBI two-run homer in the third which brought Lake County (18-18) to 6-4, and the captains scored again in the fifth before finally leveling the game. in the eighth, setting up the Heroism of Rodriguez.

The Fort Wayne reliever box has allowed two runs in six innings while striking out 10 and has a 1.54 ERA in its last five games.

The victory completed a 12-game homestand, the longest in franchise history, in which Fort Wayne went 6-6. Skender’s family, including his grandparents, came to town during the homestand.

“We like him a lot, it was super fun,” Skender said of playing 12 home games in a row. “It was great fun being here for two weeks, especially for me… it was really good to see my family and it was two fun weeks for sure.”

The TinCaps kick off a franchise-record 12-game road trip on Tuesday with the start of a six-game streak against first-place Dayton.

dsinn@jg.net