After the teams exchanged sacrifice flies in the bottom of the first and the top of the second, Oliveras broke a 1-all tie with a two-run home run to right field to put Dayton ahead for good. Oliveras finished the game 3-for-4 and is now 5-for-8 in the series with a pair of homers.

Snowden (1-0) cruised with a steady diet of mid-80s fastballs and off-speed pitches. In 6 1/3 innings, the 20-year old southpaw allowed just a run on six hits with four Ks.

Carlos Mendez added three RBIs for the Dragons on a sac fly in the first, an RBI double in the third and an eighth inning single.

Both Loons run were driven in by Angelo Songco, who connected on the sac fly in the second and drilled a one-run single in the eighth to score Nick Buss. Alfredo Silverio led the Loons with two hits.

In the bottom of the seventh with two outs Dayton extended its lead with a pair of unearned runs. On the first pitch after a 13-minute delay following an injury to umpire Charles Billington, Yen-Wen Kuo ripped a 3-2 pitch from Jon Dutton down the right field line for a double. The inning was extended on an error by Jaime Pedroza.

Josh Walter (7-4) was charged with the loss. The big right-hander struck out eight through five innings and ended his appearance getting out of a bases loaded, no out jam without allowing a run. But he surrendered seven hits, four runs (all earned) and three walks in his 11th start of the season.

With South Bend's 6-0 win over West Michigan, the Loons are now just 1.5 games ahead of the Silver Hawks, 2.5 in front of Dayton and 3.5 ahead of the Lugnuts, who won 9-4 over Fort Wayne.

The Loons continue their series in Dayton Wednesday before returning to Dow Diamond for an eight-game homestand beginning Friday. Wednesday's game time is 7pm and features a pitching matchup of right-hander Bobby Blevins (7-7, 3.89 ERA) for the Loons against left-hander Ezequiel Infante (1-0, 1.72).