Mike Couzens has been named manager of broadcasting and media relations, the Fort Wayne TinCaps announced today.
Fort Wayne players and coaches lined up Monday near the TinCaps’ dugout along the first-base line and saluted the Parkview Field crowd with a tip of the hat.
It was their way of saying thanks for a record-breaking regular season.
The TinCaps closed the regular season with a bang, beating West Michigan 11-8. Fort Wayne pounded out 16 hits in its final tune-up for the playoffs in front of a crowd of 5,121 fans. That total pushed the season attendance to 404,942. It’s the first time in franchise history Fort Wayne has had more than 400,000 fans for a regular season.
“Every time we get these fans out here and supporting us the way they have all year, especially the times we’ve had over 7,000, it’s always been fun,” TinCaps manager Jose Flores said. “If you can’t get up for a game like that, you are probably in the wrong place.
“To come out and get supported every night the way we did, averaging 5,000 fans, it’s fun to be a part of that.”
Fort Wayne (41-29, 77-63 overall) finished with a 40-31 record in home games.
“The crowd plays a huge factor,” said second baseman Dean Anna, who went 3 for 5 with one RBI. “When they get going, we get going. They are like the 10th man out there. We try not to lose in our house.”
Edinson Rincon also had three hits for Fort Wayne. His two-out, two-run single in third inning gave the TinCaps a 3-0 lead.
Jonathan Galvez, Griffin Benedict and Everett Williams each had two hits. Galvez hit his 10th home run of the season in the sixth inning.
“We needed that,” Flores said of the offensive outburst. “It was a big boost for us. We’ve had situations in the past where we’ve kind of tailed off offensively. To come out and get 16 hits leading into the playoffs, that’s a good thing for us. Hopefully that will carry over into Wednesday (in the playoff opener against Great Lakes).”
The TinCaps had just four hits in Sunday’s 5-4 loss to the Whitecaps. Monday, Fort Wayne had five hits alone during a four-run seventh inning. Danny Payne drove in two runs with a single to push the lead to 9-3.
“We’re hitting balls hard throughout this whole losing (Fort Wayne entered Monday’s game with losses in nine of its last 13 games). We finally found some holes and it showed on the scoreboard,” Anna said.
Fort Wayne added two more runs in the eighth to stretch the lead to 11-3. West Michigan (36-34, 62-77) scored five times in the ninth to tighten the game before reliever Dan Ottone entered to get the final out.
Fort Wayne turns its attention to the best-of-three first round series with Great Lakes. The playoffs begin at 7:05 p.m. Wednesday at Parkview Field. Games 2 and 3 (if necessary) are Thursday and Friday at Great Lakes.
“We don’t want to do anything different than what we’ve done all year,” Flores said of the playoff approach. “We just want to compete and stay in ball games.”
