TinCaps reach base often in win

FORT WAYNE — The Kernals just couldn’t keep the TinCaps off the bases.

The Fort Wayne TinCaps reached base 28 times, including eight walks, in a 10-2 victory Monday to take two out of three games from the Cedar Rapids Kernals at Parkview Field.

“Hopefully it’s confidence, hopefully it’s momentum going into Bowling Green, which has been a good team all year,” said TinCap manager Anthony Contreras, whose team went 4-2 on its homestand and is off today before going to Bowling Green, Kentucky, for a quick three-game series against the first-place Hot Rods. “I think the guys getting on base as much as they do, that’s something we really pride ourselves on as an organization is getting on base. These guys, I think, were on base 26 times. That’s cool to see, and hopefully we can build off that going forward.”

In fact, the TinCaps were on base 28 times: 14 hits, eight walks, four hit by pitches and two errors.

Fort Wayne (11-19 second half, 44-54 overall) had at least one runner on base each inning. Dwanya Williams-Sutton led all players by reaching base five times, including being hit by four pitches (see related column).

The TinCaps used their ability to reach base frequently as an advantage, scoring in bunches. A three-run third inning erased a 1-0 deficit after Wander Javier hit a solo homer in the second inning to put the Kernals (17-13, 56-44), an affiliate of the Minnesota Twins, on top early.

Michael Curry scored on an error to tie the game in the home half of the frame, and Tucupita Marcano knocked in a run with a double to right field, the first of his three hits. It was Marcano’s 28th game this year with two or more hits, and the eighth time he recorded three hits.

Williams-Sutton, who walked in the first inning, got hit on the left arm to bring home another run.

Curry and Marcano notched RBIs in the third inning to make it 5-2, and the TinCaps plated three more in the fifth. Marcano drove in another run on his way to a four-RBI evening. Williams-Sutton (HBP) and Ethan Skender (walk) both brought home teammates without swinging the bat with bases loaded.

In the eighth inning, Marcano and Jawuan Harris had back-to-back RBI singles, making it 10-2.

Southpaw Joey Cantillo, the Padres’ No. 28 prospect who leads the Midwest League in ERA (2.09), WHIP (0.88) and strikeouts (115), was back to his normal ways after going 0-1 in his last two starts.

The 19-year-old Hawaiian found confidence in his curveball to compliment his changeup and fastball, the latter of which touched 94 miles per hour on the second-to-last of his 91 pitches. It was the first time in Cantillo’s career that he reached that velocity.

“You could see it (in the sixth) inning, he was amped up,” Contreras said. “He felt the adrenaline. It is good to see he has that in the tank because as he gets older, he’s going to be able to subtract and add miles per hour.”

After Javier’s one-out home run in the second inning, Cantillo fanned seven of the next 13 batters, including all three in the fifth. The Kernals scored a run off of him in the third, and threatened later in the sixth with runners at the corners before he punched out Jared Akins for the third time.

“The curveball was huge,” he said. “Maybe the second time all year I’ve had three pitches like that.

“(The curveballs) were solid. They were strikes or did what they needed to do for the most part. That was huge just confidence-wise. After landing that it gives me so much confidence because they don’t know what’s coming. It takes away a two-pitch, 50/50 guessing ability that some teams can have sometimes.”

Tyler Benson and Curry joined Marcano with three hits apiece, the second such night Benson accomplished the feat. Blake Hunt had a double and a single, and Harris collected two singles as well as the TinCaps doubled-up the Kernals, 14-7, in the hit column.