The Crowd: Don't get me wrong, Mandalay Entertainment does a whale of a job filling the seats in the Gem of the Gem City however by my estimate 70% of the season ticket holders are companies in the Miami Valley. That is how you sell out nine straight seasons and have a waiting list a mile long for a single "A" team. In the playoffs though you get people that are interested in the team and the town out to the ballpark and it makes for a great atmosphere. Dragons put 7,576 butts in the seats on Wednesday - pretty impressive

The Game: It only took two hours and twenty four minutes for the Dragons to dispatch the Lugnuts by a final score of 3-1. The game went scoreless into the bottom of the sixth when Neftali Soto hit a two run double and started the scoring for Dayton. Later in the inning Dennis Phipps drove Soto home and that was all they would need.

The Pitching: Jeremy Horst (6.2IP, 5SO, 3H, 2BB, and 0ER) was brilliant in his start with his fastball reaching 91 in the first inning. He was followed to the hill by Mace Thurman (1.2IP, 3H, 1ER, and 4SO) and Jeff Jeffords (0.2IP, 1BB, 1SO) who also pitched well to bring Dayton to within one win of the Eastern Division Championship series.

Other games: South Bend beat West Michigan by a final score of 5-3 to take a 1-0 lead in the other Eastern Division series. Cedar Rapids and Burlington won the first game of their series in the Western Division.

Next: Dragons at Lugnuts in Lansing, Michigan at 7:00pm on Thursday night