Dayton Dragons (CIN) @ Lansing Lugnuts (ATH)
June 24, 2025
HR: Carter Graham (DAY), CJ Rodriguez (LAN), Casey Yamauchi (LAN), Tommy White (LAN)
Attendance: 1,638
Time of Game: 2 hours, 56 minutes
Stadium Facts
Location: Lansing, MI
Opened: 1996
Capacity: 9,500
Level: High A
League: Midwest
Time of Game: 2 hours, 56 minutes
Stadium Facts
Location: Lansing, MI
Opened: 1996
Capacity: 9,500
Level: High A
League: Midwest
Prior to this trip, knowing my one scheduled day off was going to be in Central Michigan, I asked a few people I know with far more knowledge of the state than me on how I might occupy my time on this Monday off day. I didn't get a lot of concrete suggestions. It seems this is not exactly the most touristy part of the state. As it turns out, that was just as well as I probably would have opted against any outdoor recommendations anyway. While it wasn't quite as hot as Sunday, the heatwave was still in effect and I decided to spend virtually all of the day either inside or in my car. By Tuesday, temperatures returned to a far more tolerable level, particularly by first pitch of this evening game in the state capital city.
Jackson Field is located just a few blocks east of the state capitol building in downtown Lansing. The ballpark is nestled in a tight city block and oriented directly south to north from home plate out to center field. Because the park runs right up against city streets to both the east and west, the dimensions down each of the lines are quite short. 305 feet to be exact. Tall walls jut out quickly from the foul poles on each side. However, the dimensions are still quite short to both straight away left and right as well. Only fly balls hit to center field might not cause a pitcher's heart to sink. While the fit in the city block is tight on those two sides, there is actually quite a bit of open space leading up to the home plate entrance on the south side. This is yet another minor league ballpark with a residential building overlooking the outfield. Tenants of that building on the ballpark side no doubt have a great view of the game from their balconies. The lower level of the building houses a picnic area and a bar that are within the ballpark's perimeter. A concourse circles the entire park even though the only outfield seating available is of the lawn variety. There is a considerable amount of seating on the lower level in the infield with bleachers down the first base line and a party porch on the third base side. The second level consists of suites and the press box. There was a small, but lively crowd for this Tuesday night contest. Unfortunately for most of those fans, the home team didn't give them a whole lot to cheer about.
Because of the quirky and generally short dimensions of this field, I would imagine there are a lot of high scoring games played at Jackson Field. This was one such game. Steven Echavarria got the start on the mound for Lansing and was opposed by lefty Adam Serwinowski for Dayton. I actually saw Serwinowski pitch for a second time this summer just a couple days ago in Dayton. He wasn't terribly effective in either game. Nor was Echavarria or pretty much any other pitcher in this particular game though. A total of nine pitchers appeared in the game and only the last Lansing pitcher, Henry Gomez, didn't give up at least one run. The defenses didn't help the cause much either, especially the Dragons. The left side of their infield committed four errors, all of the throwing variety. Each team scratched out a single run in the first inning. Then the offenses really got rolling starting with Dayton's half of the third. With a runner on second and two outs, Yerlin Confidan hit a chopper that took a huge hop off the infield dirt to somehow bounce over the second baseman's head and he raced into second for a RBI double. That was the second of four RBI hits on the night for Confidan, two of which were doubles. That was followed by a run scoring single by Carlos Sanchez and then a two run homer by Carter Graham onto the hill beyond the shorter wall in left field. It was a tough luck four run inning allowed by Echavarria who would have been out of it unscathed if not for that bad infield hop. However, the Dragons took a 5-1 lead. Then they did more damage in the fourth. Echavarria was pulled after issuing a hit by pitch and walk to start the inning. Both of those runners came in to score on a triple to the right centerfield gap by Carlos Jorge. By the end of the top of the fourth, Dayton had a comfortable 8-1 lead. It didn't stay comfortable though. In the bottom half of the inning, the Dragons leaky defense allowed Lansing to answer with three of their own. Two nearly identical plays on consecutive pitches were the primary culprit. With one out and runners at the corners, a ground ball to Sanchez at third base could have been an inning ending double play with no runs scoring. Instead, Sanchez made a poor throw to second that got away and allowed a run to score and another runner to advance to third. On the very next pitch, a slightly harder hit ball to third allowed Sanchez the chance to redeem himself. Instead, the throw to second got away again. Sanchez was charged with the error again, but from my vantage point I thought the second baseman should have been able to catch it. Regardless, the Lugnuts wound up scoring three runs in the inning, only one of which was earned and possibly none would have scored if the first play had been made. So it was now an 8-4 lead for the Dragons. The Lugnuts didn't make much out of this gift though as they surrendered two more runs in the fifth and a single run in the sixth to make it 11-4. At this point the game was not really in doubt. However, the Lugnuts did provide some further offensive highlights. In the bottom of the sixth, two different Lugnuts hit their first home runs of the season. CJ Rodriguez homered to the hill in left. Then two batters later, Casey Yamauchi sliced one down the right field line that right fielder Confidan made a lunging attempt at, but was unable to come up with it. The ball caromed off the side wall and along the outfield wall as Yamauchi rounded the bases and made it all the way home for an inside the park home run. It was the first home run of his professional career and one of the softest hit homers I've ever seen. Not as softly hit was a bomb to center by Tommy White to lead off the bottom of the ninth. Tommy Tanks, as he's often called, was a college baseball hero at NC State and LSU. Now he's hitting tanks for Lansing. This one wasn't nearly enough for the Lugnuts though as they dropped the game by a score of 13-8. The Dragons filled up the line score with 13 runs on 17 hits and 4 errors.
This concluded my three stop tour of Michigan's Midwest League affiliates. Three nice parks, but in very different surroundings. I think I get why the Tigers currently go with West Michigan as their High A affiliate since the Grand Rapids area seems to be the most supportive of their team, with the caveat that the weather certainly kept people away from the park in both Great Lakes and Lansing on the days I was there. It was back to Indiana for me the following evening.
Next ballpark: Parkview Field in Fort Wayne, IN
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