Lugnuts Take Series From Rays

Battle Creek, Mich.- Lansing's starting pitcher Adrian Martin shined on a sundrenched afternoon at C.O. Brown Stadium on Sunday as the Lugnuts defeated the Southwest Michigan Devil Rays 7-2 to take the season opening series.

Martin (1-0) hurled seven innings allowing two runs and scattering six hits while using a scant 70 pitches in the win. Martin was pulled after seven in favor of Po-Hsuan Keng, who tossed the final two frames for Lansing.

Greg Reinhard (1-0) took the loss for Southwest Michigan (1-3) after giving up six runs, five of which were earned, in six innings of work.

The Lugnuts exploded for five runs in the second inning after falling behind 1-0 early. After a Joey Metropoulos single led off the inning, Brian Pettway doubled to right-center field to move Metropolous to third. Each runner advanced on a sacrifice fly by Cory Patton to tie the score at 1-1. Josh Bell then drove home Pettway with an RBI single to make the game 2-1. Yuber Rodriguez followed with a triple to left-center field that plated Bell. Jesus Gonzalez and Chris Gutierrez also had RBI hits in the inning as the Lugnuts took a 5-1 lead.

Gutierrez finished the game going 3-for-5 with an RBI double while Joey Metropoulos extended his season opening hit streak to four games.

The Lugnuts finished the series scoring 25 runs in four games. Southwest Michigan plated just 10.

Lansing (3-1) will continue its five game road trip on Monday in Dayton, Ohio as they take on the Dayton Dragons (1-3) at Fifth Third Field. First pitch is set for 7:00 p.m.