Late homers get the best of Loons

A pair of late home runs doomed Great Lakes Wednesday night as the Loons fell to the Clinton LumberKings by a score of 5-3.

The Loons jumped out to a 2-0 lead thanks to RBI singles from Juan Apodaca and Francisco Lizarraga and later extended that lead to 3-0 on a sixth-inning RBI single from Scott Van Slyke.

But in the seventh, Loons reliever Arismendy Castillo would let the flood gates open as a walk, an RBI-double, and a two-run home run off the bat of Chris Kemp tied the game at three. Later in the inning, Clinton catcher Hunter Harrigan laced a line drive home run to left-field to give the LumberKings a 4-3 lead. Clinton would add an insurance run in the eighth to round out the scoring.

James Adkins started and pitched well in limited action for the Loons. The Dodgers’ 2007 first-round pick went three scoreless innings while striking out four. Loons’ manager Lance Parrish was pleased with the lefty’s short performance.

“I thought he pitched his best baseball of the season tonight,” Parrish said. “He had a good breaking ball working for him. I was very pleased with how he pitched.”

Clinton starter Kasey Kiker (5-3) got the win, while Josh Lueke pitched the final 1.2 innings to pick up his third save of the season.

Castillo (2-8) took the loss.

The Loons-LumberKings series concludes Thursday night with Paul Coleman scheduled to start for the Loons. Game time is 7:05 p.m.

A box score of Wednesday’s game is available at milb.com.