South Bend Cubs score 11 in 3rd to beat Lansing

On Star Wars Night at Four Winds Field, the South Bend Cubs scored all 11 of their runs in an explosive 3rd inning as they defeated Lansing 11-7 in a game that ended after five innings because of weather.

Lansing scored four runs in the 1st and another in the 2nd to take a 5-0 lead before South Bend exploded in the 3rd.

Zack Short got the offense going with his leadoff ground-rule double, which would have been an inside the park home run had the ball not got stuck under a chair in the Cubs bullpen.

Yeiler Peguero and Isaac Paredes both walked after the double, which brought up Kevonte Mitchell who would walk with the bases loaded to score the Cubs first run of the game.

Lugnuts pitcher Mike Ellenbest, who had just walked the last three consecutive hitters, then hit D.J. Wilson with a pitch allowing Peguero to score the Cubs' second run.

From there, South Bend's bats started to heat up to keep scoring in the inng. A Pereda single scored Peredes from third followed by Michael Cruz' bases clearing three-RBI double to give South Bend the 6-5 lead. Brandon Cummins then singled to score Cruz from second and Short followed with a single of his own to load the bases.

"[The third inning] was the definition of hitting being contagious," Short said after the victory. "I've said it before, once people going it's contagious; that's the only way to put it. It shows that we're good, it doesn't matter how many runs we're down we still have life. As long as the game is still going on, we still have life."

After South Bend batted around the order, Lansing's new pitcher, Andrew Deramo, who came in for relief after Pereda's single, struggled to locate the ball throwing a wild pitch with the bases loaded to allow the Cubs' eighth run to score of the frame.

Mitchell's two out RBI-double tacked on two more while Vimael Machine's RBI-single rounded out the inning as the Cubs moved forward with an 11-5 lead with two and half innings to be played before the game was rained out.

"My first at-bat I wasn't feeling like myself, but that's why it's one at-bat at a time," said Kevonte Mitchell after being named Player of the Game. "I had a chance to talk with [Jason Heyward] and Darnell McDonald a bit [on Thursday] and they were just telling me to keep grinding and it will all just click. Getting those words from a big league player like that helped a ton."

GUERRERO JR.'s HOT BAT: Coming into the game, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. was hitting .412 (7-17) with two doubles and a homer in five games against the Cubs. Regardless, the hot-hitting right-hander kept up his impressive stats against South Bend in [insert at-bats] in Saturday evening's ballgame.

In the first inning, Guerrero Jr. hit a bases loaded RBI-single for his first hit of the night. Three innings later, he continued with a RBI-double, his second hit and RBI of the game. Then, in the sixth inning, he fouled off four straight pitches in a 0-2 count before working the count full and reaching first base with a one-out walk.

Guerrero Jr. did not have the chance to score in that inning as South Bend turned an inning-ending double play just before the grounds crew ran onto the field to put the tarp in place.

After the rain out, Guerrero Jr.'s batting average against the Cubs improved to .473 in five games in addition to tonight's five and 1Ž2 inning contest. Thus, the Cubs will have to find a way to neutralize his bat in order to keep the Lugnuts offense from jumping ahead early.

WHAT'S NEXT:

Cubs: Bryan Hudson is scheduled to take the mound in the 2:05 p.m. final game against the Lugnuts. In his last start, Hudson threw five scoreless innings only allowing three hits against the division leading Dayton Dragons.

Lugnuts: The Toronto Blue Jays Midwest League affiliate will send Andy Ravel to the mound for the last game of the series. In seven games, Ravel is 3-1 with a 8.38 ERA.