Jose Paulino threw seven innings of quality baseball Sunday against Dayton. (Photo by Emma Reese)

SOUTH BEND – Jose Paulino threw seven dominant innings and a critical error in the bottom of the eighth allowed the winning run to score as the South Bend Cubs swept a four-game series over the Dayton Dragons with a 3-2 victory in front of a crowd of 6,074 on Sunday afternoon at Four Winds Field.

Dayton (14-35, 55-64) scored to take their only lead of the game in the top of the first inning. With one out, third baseman Hector Vargas hit a 1-1 pitch deep over the left-center field wall for a solo homerun and a 1-0 Dragons lead. Paulino settled down to work around a two-out error to get out of the inning at 1-0.

South Bend (23-26, 62-56) struck back in the bottom of the first to take the lead. Shortstop Aramis Ademan lined a single up the middle with one out. Centerfielder D.J. Wilson followed with a walk to put runners at first and second for right fielder Chris Pieters. Pieters laced a sharp grounder through the right side for a single that scored Ademan and put Wilson at third. The throw from right field came home and the catcher fired down to the shortstop, catching Pieters between first and second. Pieters got caught in a rundown and the Dragons’ second baseman eventually dropped a throw allowing Pieters to get back to first safely, and allowing Wilson to scamper home from third.

Paulino was dominant from that point on. After allowing a homer in the first he surrendered a single in the second and stranded two on in the inning after a two-out error. Beginning with the final batter of the second inning, he retired the last sixteen Dragons he faced. He ended up going seven innings, allowing just the one run on two hits while striking out six Dragons. Andrew Jordan also pitched well for Dayton, allowing just the two first-inning runs (one unearned) in five innings of work.

The Dragons tied the game up in the top of the eighth inning. Shortstop Carlos Rivero beat out an infield single to start the inning. Right fielder Michael Beltre hit a broken bat grounder to third that resulted in a force out at second. A wild throw on the attempt to turn the double play advanced Beltre to second. A grounder back to the pitcher was the second out of the inning and Beltre moved to third. Vargas than drove in his second run of the game with a line drive double to right center and the game was tied at 2-2.

The Cubs scored the game-winning run in the bottom of the eighth inning. Catcher Tyler Payne lined a single to left to lead off the inning. Yeiler Peguero came in at first as a pinch runner and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by first baseman Joe Martarano. After a strikeout, Dayton pitcher Jesse Adams (L, 4-2) appeared to have gotten out of the inning but left fielder Luis Ayala’s fly ball to right was dropped and Peguero crossed the plate for a 3-2 lead. Wyatt Short (W, 3-3), who had entered in the top of eighth, finished off the game for the Cubs by retiring the side in order in the ninth.