LocalSportsJournal.com

West Michigan Whitecaps starter Kyle Dowdy tossed the team’s first complete game of the season – a shutout – in Sunday’s 8-0 victory over the Burlington Bees in front of 5,327 at LSJ Logo incertFifth Third Ballpark.

Needing only 82 pitches to finish the game, Dowdy (7-2) combined great control with limited contact to cruise to his seventh victory of thewhitecaps logo not for feature art year. Dowdy allowed just one walk, scattered five hits and struck out three.

Dowdy was backed by another strong defensive effort along with great balanced production at the plate. The West Michigan defense turned two inning-ending double plays in the first five innings while six different Whitecaps hitters recorded base hits.

Jose Zambrano enjoyed a three hit game as well as Rashad Brown.

A three-run fifth inning broke the game open. A suicide squeezes sacrifice RBI by David Gonzalez scored Cam Gibson, and an RBI single off the bat of Rashad Brown enabled Zambrano to score, making it 4-0.

Again in the eighth inning the ‘Caps produced three runs. Franklin Navarro ripped a two-run double to right center to chase home Jose Azocar and Gibson. Zambrano followed two batters later with his third hit of the game-an RBI single- to plate Navarro and close out the scoring.

West Michigan improves to 52-42 overall and bumped up their second half record to 13-14. Burlington fell to 16-14 in the second half standings and 48-52 overall.