Noland Gem Overshadowed By Struggling Offense

SOUTH BEND, IN - Connor Noland stole the show for the Cubs today, unleashing his best career outing with five scoreless innings, just two hits allowed, no walks, and six strikeouts. At one point the right-hander from Arkansas retired 11 straight after he allowed a two-out single to Austin Callahan in the first inning.

South Bend also didn't issue a walk for the second time in the past three games, and over the last three games collectively the Cubs have issued just one walk.

But, the Cub offense was again stymied by stellar Dragons pitching. Julian Aguiar was terrific, matching Noland shutout inning for shutout inning until the sixth. Aguiar sat down 14 in a row after a single from McKeon to start his day.

Fabian Pertuz led off the sixth inning with a line drive single to right. Casey Opitz and Jacob Wetzel followed with walks and for the first time it looked like Aguilar was thrown a bit off-kilter. But after a visit to the mound he got McKeon to pop-out on the infield. Ezequiel Pagan then launched a ball down the left field line all the way to the warning track in the corner that was caught on a full sprint by Justice Thompson, who crashed into the wall. Pertuz scored from third after the relay back to first base was a bit offline, though close to doubling off Wetzel to end the inning.

Sheldon Reed struck out the first four batters he faced out of the Cubs bullpen but allowed an opposite field solo-homer to Ruben Ibarra on a breaking ball that tied things up 1-1.

In the bottom of the seventh Christian Franklin singled to extend his on-base streak to 13 games. With one out Ethan Hearn crushed a ball to deep left-center that was caught up against the wall by Thompson. Dayton appealed that Franklin didn't touch second base on his way back to first, and the Dragons got the double play to end the inning.

A two-run eighth inning would ultimately prove too much for South Bend to overcome. Michael Trautwein doubled with one out off of Adam Laskey. Trey Faltine, in his first game of the series, then singled into shallow left. Trautwein got the stop sign at third base but Wetzel's throw in deflected off Hearn's glove and kicked all the way to the backstop, giving Dayton the lead and allowing Faltine to scamper all the way to third. He would score on a Tyler Callihan infield single.

Myles Gayman and Jake Gozzo combined for three scoreless innings out of the bullpen and between the two they retired the last seven South Bend batters. Gayman notched his second win and Gozzo got his second save in the last three days, his third on the season.

Through four games in this series the Cubs offense has produced seven runs on 19 hits, while going 2-for-23 with runners in scoring position.

Dayton has won three in a row for the first time this season and South Bend has now lost three in a row for a third time. The Cubs will look to avoid their first four-game losing streak with a win tomorrow afternoon.