FORT WAYNE – For the second straight day, the South Bend Cubs received a dominant outing from their starting pitcher. Last night, Cory Abbott struck out a career high 11 batters in six shutout innings. This afternoon, right hander Erich Uelmen tossed six scoreless frames of his own.
Uelmen was forced to take a no-decision in the game after he departed after inning number six with the 1-0 lead. After scoring four runs in the bottom of the 7th inning yesterday, the Fort Wayne TinCaps added three runs in the 7th today. South Bend could not answer the rally and dropped the final game of the series 3-1.
The Cubs have now been swept by Fort Wayne to end their road trip. In two out of the three games, South Bend possessed the lead after six innings. Today in particular, Chris Singleton doubled in Zach Davis in the top of the 3rd inning for South Bend’s only run.
With the bases loaded in the top of the 9th inning, South Bend had their chance to comeback off of relievers Jordan Guerrero and Travis Radke. Guerrero was pulled with two outs in favor of Radke to face third baseman Austin Filiere. Starting him with two straight strikes, Filiere grounded the third pitch softly to third base. Justin Lopez fielded cleanly and got Filiere to end the game.
In all, the Cubs left 11 runners on base and were 0-9 with runners in scoring position. Over the last five games of the road trip, South Bend scored just nine runs total. A tough ending to the road trip for South Bend does not make it any easier as they will welcome the first place Lansing Lugnuts to Four Winds Field starting tomorrow.
Sunday’s game also makes it five straight losses for South Bend. They are now 11 games back of the division leading Lansing Lugnuts with a record of 17-24.
South Bend will hope the consistency of the starting pitching remains strong. In order to beat the Lugnuts, they will need an all around team effort over the course of the four game series. Left hander Ricky Tyler Thomas is scheduled to start for South Bend tomorrow night. First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 p.m.
