Catfish drop doubleheader to Lake County

After an 8-0 road trip -- and a 9-game winning streak -- the Columbus Catfish have now lost three in a row.

The former tenants of Columbus' Golden Park, the Lake County Captains (Indians) -- the former Columbus RedStixx -- have now won the first three games of their series, including a double header on Wednesday.

Lake County won the two games, 4-1 and 5-1, setting up a possible sweep Thursday.

In Game 1, the Captains got on the board first when Doug Pickens drove in Chris Nash, who had doubled, with a groundout to short. The Catfish answered when Seth Dhaenens walked, stole second and scored on Maiko Loyola's groundout to second. However, the Captains came back for 3 in the top of the 4th. Karexon Sanchez led off the inning with a home run to left field way over the billboards. Richard Martinez then scored on a Brian Flores wild pitch and Ron Rivas drove in Pickens with a single to left field.

In Game 2, the Captains started the scoring again when a Mark Thompson single was mishandled by Stephen Vogt, allowing Rivas to score. The Catfish answered quickly in the bottom of the inning when Vogt hit a sacrifice fly to left field to score Ian Paxton on a bang-bang play. The Captains then went ahead for good in the top of the 6th when they put up 4 runs. Matt Brown led off the inning with a home run off of Justin Garcia, snapping his streak of 12 and 2/3 shutout innings. Adam White then doubled home Jeff Hehr and Adam Davis singled in both Rivas and White.

The Catfish must win Thursday night in order to avoid a 4-game sweep.