Shoffit Slams The Door On South Bend

If you are a fan of a good old fashioned pitchers duel, then Oldsmobile Park was the place for you on Thurday night as the Lansing Lugnuts defeated the South Bend Silverhawks by the score of 5-3.

The duel also seems to bring to mind of a quote that I once heard from Greg Maddux in a pregame show. That quote was that 75% of all runs scored are with two outs in an inning.

Lansing's Nate Starner and South Bends Tony Barnette matched each other frame for frame through four and a half innings and it appeared that the trend would continue as Barnette quickly disposed of the first two hitters in the bottom half of the fifth. But that is when Lansing would mount a ralley. Scott Campbell and Raul Barron both singled to right and Travis Snider would walk loading the bases for clean up hitter Chris Emanuele, who singled sharply to third scoring Campbell and leaving the bases loaded for Sean Shoffit. Shoffit promptly ripped an 0-1 pitch over the right field screen and out onto the adjoining street for his second grand slam of the season and would put the Lugnuts up 5-0.

"I'm glad to see him hit a ball like that because most of his power this year has come to the middle of field to left center which is good," stated Lansing manager Gary Cathcart. "But when a guy comes inside like that you tend to pull the ball foul and for him to keep that ball fair showed me a lot. That is a tough pitch to keep fair."

Nate Starner pitched six innings of one run baseball and picked up his seventh victory of the season.

"I tried to work off my fastball and jump ahead with my fastball and set up my offspeed stuff," stated Starner. "Hopefully I'm getting back on track. I had a pretty rough month this last month".

South Bend would try to mount a comeback as they would score a single run in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings but would not be able to put a crooked number on the board.

The victory marks the third straight victory for Lansing over South Bend and currently move Lansing into sole possession of the coveted wild card playoff spot in the Eastern Division over South Bend. The two teams will hook up again in Lansing on Friday and conclude their four game series in Lansing. Game time is 7:05.