Dragons drop first game on road trip

South Bend, Ind (WDTN) - Tom Belza collected four hits and drove in four runs to lead the South Bend Silver Hawks to a 12-4 victory over the Dayton Dragons on Thursday night in the first game of a six-game road trip for the Dragons.  Dayton fell to 1-6 in the second half while South Bend improved to 4-3.

South Bend scored two runs in the first inning and added three more in the second, keyed by Belza’s RBI double, to take an early 5-0 lead.  They scored another run in the fourth on Belza’s run-scoring single to jump ahead 6-0 before the Dragons got the offense in gear in the fifth. 

Dayton’s Ryan Wright led off the fifth inning with a double to the left field fence and Kyle Waldrop singled him in with a hit down the right field line to make it 6-1.  After South Bend tacked on another run in the bottom of the inning, the Dragons scored again in the sixth.  Junior Arias singled to left-center field, stole second, and scored on Joe Terry’s bouncer through the middle to make it 7-2.

But the Dragons could get no closer and South Bend was able to string together five hits and five runs in the bottom of the eighth, highlighted by Belza’s two-run single, to take a commanding 12-2 lead.  Dayton picked up two in the ninth on Waldrop’s run-scoring ground out and an infield hit by Yorman Rodriguez that brought in a run to close out the scoring.

Dragons starting pitcher Dan Jensen worked the first three and one-third innings.  He allowed nine hits and six runs (four earned) while walking two and striking out two.  Jensen suffered the loss to fall to 3-8 on the year.  El’Hajj Muhammad replaced Jensen and tossed two and two-thirds innings, giving up one run on two hits with a walk and three strikeouts.  Cole Green pitched a perfect seventh inning but ran into problems in the eighth, allowing five runs on five hits with a walk and a strikeout.

The Dragons finished with eight hits.  Terry and Rodriguez each had two hits while Waldrop had one hit and two runs batted in.  Juan Perez was 0 for 4 as his 11-game hitting streak came to an end.  Ryan Wright was 1 for 3 with a double and a run scored to extend his hitting streak to seven straight games and raise his batting average to an even .300.

The Dragons play at South Bend against the Silver Hawks again Friday night at 7:35 p.m. in the second game of a three-game series.  Radhames Quezada (5-6, 3.75) will start for Dayton against South Bend’s John Pedrotty (4-5, 5.72).