Lexington Legends Beat Lakewood BlueClaws 4-2 - A, South Atlantic League

MLN - THE RAW FEED - www.mlntherawfeed.com – LEXINGTON, KY - Both teams' starting pitchers threw seven complete innings but earned no decisions as the Lexington Legends beat the Lakewood BlueClaws 4-2 on Saturday night at Applebee's Park. The loss snapped the BlueClaws (11-12) four-game winning streak and put them back below the .500 mark on the season.

Matt Cusick's homerun to lead off the eighth inning against reliever Walter Tejeda broke a 2-2 tie and pushed the Legends in front for good. It was his fourth homerun of the season and raised his batting average to .405 with another multi-hit game.

It was the first batter that Tejeda (2-1) faced after Jacob Diekman pitched through the seventh. He settled in for Lakewood after allowing runs in each of the first two innings and retired eight of the final nine batters he faced. He allowed two earned runs on seven hits with three strikeouts and did not walk a batter.

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Before Diekman even threw a pitch on Saturday, his team had a 1-0 lead. D'Arby Myers led off the game with a double to right-center and came around to score when Dominic Brown reached on an error by third baseman Roberto Mena. The double by Myers was the only hit for Lakewood until Joel Naughton singled with one out in the fifth.

Lexington tied the game at one in their half of the first as, for the second night in a row, the first three batters all reached base. Cusick and Corrado both singled and Colin DeLome picked up his 17th RBI of the season with a single of his own. In the second, Roberto Mena hit a ground-rule double and Nick Moresi notched his second triple of the series to give Lexington the lead, 2-1.

That score held all the way into the seventh inning. Starter Carlos Ladeuth had only allowed two baserunners since the first inning and had already matched his season-high in innings pitched. Michael Taylor stroked a double down the right field line to start the inning and it took a two out single from Naughton to tie the game. It was the sixth RBI of the season for Naughton who was the only BlueClaw to record a multi-hit game.

Jacob Leonhardt (1-4) came in to pitch the eighth for the Legends and retired Lakewood in order to setup Cusick's homerun. A walk and two, two-out singles followed the homerun and Lexington expanded their lead to 4-2.

A night after the BlueClaws posted new season-highs in runs (12) and hits (19) they were held to just two runs on four hits. The four-game series and seven- game road trip will conclude on Sunday at 2:05pm. Chance Chapman will make his fourth start of the season for the BlueClaws and he will be opposed by Sergio Severino of the Legends. Radio coverage of every Lakewood game is available on the Shore Sports Network (1160 WOBM-AM and 1310 Fox Sports Radio) with BlueClaws Beat kicking things off 15 minutes prior to first pitch.

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