Lugnuts Earn Record Setting Victory

Records are made to be broken, and that is exactly what happened in Lansing on Friday night as the Lugnuts defeated the Kane County Cougars by the score of 4-3. The win sets a franchise record ninth consecutive win, and drove Lansing’s record to 10-1 on the young season.

Perhaps the fast start should be expected. After all, this is a team that returns ten players from last year’s squad that saw the Lugnuts jump out to an 18-5 start.

“This years team is of course different than last years team, but it feels like more of a complete team.” stated Lansing third baseman Josh Bell. “Last year is like this year in that we won a lot of games at first, and we just figure out ways to win.”

The success of the Lugnuts early in the season is largely due in part to the pitching staff. The staff entered the game leading the Midwest League in team pitching with a team ERA of 1.92. The teams pitching performance is something that Lansing pitching coach Tom Signore is quite happy with, but he admits that he is still learning about his staff.

“In fairness to the opponents and to our hitters, it is tough to hit in the cold. The only guy that is warm on the field is the pitcher,” stated Signore. “I think it is tough to get a good feel about your staff until you are 30 or 40 games in. Obviously I like where we are and what we have done”.

With cold temperatures to start the year, offensive production around the league is down, including the Lugnuts. They entered the current ten game home stand with a team batting average of .199. The Lugnuts were, however, able to muster just enough offense to pick up the timely hit needed. With the weather heating up, Lansing has improved that .199 mark to a team batting average of .250 entering Friday’s game.

Lansing was able to display some of the power potential that this team has on Friday as all four Lansing runs scored on solo home runs by Brian Pettway (3), Josh Bell (2) and a two run shot off the bat of Travis Snider that hit off of the right field foul pole.

“I feel that all three of us had a pretty good approach at the plate and when we got our pitch, we didn’t miss it,” stated Bell.

The Lugnuts have now swept two straight series and will welcome the Beloit Snappers (Minnesota Twins) into Oldsmobile Park for a four game series starting on Saturday night. There is no reason to believe that the streak won’t continue in that Beloit currently owns the lowest batting average in the Midwest League as they entered action on Friday night hitting a measly .188 on the season. Game time is 6:05.