BlueClaws fall in Lexington, championship seres knotted at a game apiece

The Comeback 'Claws were not able to match their tremendous resilience of one night prior when they fell to Lexington in game two of the South Atlantic League finals.

It was familiar territory as the Class A Lakewood BlueClaws trailed their opponent by a score of 5-0 in the late innings. Much like Monday's affair that saw Lakewood pound three straight ninth inning homers to climb back into that contest, they got their scoring started on Tuesday with a Rodolfo Duran roundtripper.

That blast came in the 8th inning in game two, but those were the only runs that crossed the plate for the visitors and they fell to the Legends by a final of 5-2.

BlueClaws starting pitcher Kyle Young tossed four innings, allowing a pair of earned runs while striking out two and issuing two walks to take the loss. Reliever Julian Garcia was tagged for three earned runs over 2 2/3 innings. James McArthur, this year's 12th round draft pick by the Phillies, went 1 1/3 innings without allowing any further damage.

The Lakewood offense was paced by right fielder Jhailyn Ortiz, who collected two hits including a double.

Duran has homered in three of four of the BlueClaws' postseason games. The 20-year-old right batter led the team with 18 home runs this season.

The series, tied at a game apiece, will return to Lakewood for the remainder of the best-of-five series for games on Thursday, Friday and Saturday (if necessary).

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