LANSING, Mich. – Justin Atkinson singled in Lane Thomas to break a seventh-inning tie, and the Lansing Lugnuts (18-16) gained a series split with the South Bend Cubs (21-14) with a 7-6 win on Sunday afternoon at Cooley Law School Stadium.

The game featured a rollercoaster of runs, with the Lugnuts grabbing an early 4-0 lead, falling behind 6-4, and then rallying for the win.

Facing reliever Kyle Miller (Loss, 0-1) to open the bottom of the seventh, Thomas sizzled a grounder off of third base and into left field for a leadoff double. Josh Almonte sacrificed his teammate to third, and Atkinson followed with a line drive into left field to cleanly bring him in for the lead. The rally ended South Bend’s bullpen’s scoreless streak at 23 2/3 consecutive innings.

Dan Lietz (Win, 2-0) pitched 2 2/2 scoreless innings in relief of Lugnuts starter Dan Lietz to record the victory, yielding to Josh DeGraaf (Save, 2) for the final six outs.

Designated hitter Max Pentecost wrapped up a strong return to professional baseball, going 2-for-4 with two sharp singles, a walk and an RBI. Pentecost finished the four-game series with eight hits in 16 at-bats.

Pentecost, Almonte, Thomas and Juan Kelly each collected two hits in the win, and leadoff hitter Andrew Guillotte went 1-for-4 with a run scored and a walk to extend his on-base streak to 12 games.

South Bend returns to action Tuesday at Great Lakes in a 7:05 p.m. first pitch.