Wingnuts stop Fort Worth, 6-1

WICHITA, Kan. — The Wichita Wingnuts ended a four-game losing streak, winning 6-1 over the Fort Worth Cats at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium on Thursday night.

Ryan Hinson delivered seven terrific innings, allowing one earned run on five hits to earn his fifth win of the year.

Wichita scored twice in the bottom of the first in support of Hinson. Josh Horn led off with a single to shallow right field, stole second base, and advanced to third on Ryan Patterson's line drive to right. Brent Clevlen drove in Horn with a groundball double to deep left-center. Clevlen moved to thrid on a groundout to short by Juan Richardson and came home when Jorge Delgado ripped a double down the left field line.

Wichita added two more in the fourth. Delgado singled through the right side to lead off and scored from first on Edwin Bellorin's hit-and-run double that hit the right field foul line. Two batters later, Mike Conroy singled through the middle to score Bellorin and give Wichita a 4-0 lead.

Fort Worth mounted their only rally in the top of the fifth. Marcos Rodriguez and John Allen opened the inning with singles. Cory Morales laid down a sacrifice bunt to put runners on second and third, but Hinson limited the Cats to just one run on a sacrifice fly by Jeremy Sauceda.

The Wingnuts scored twice more in the sixth. Delgado collected his third hit of the night with a one out double down the left field line. Josh Wormkan followed with a double into the left field corner that scored Delgado with the Wingnuts' fifth run. Later in the inning, Conroy drove in his second of the night, pulling a line drive single to right that scored Workman from second.

Hinson struck out five, walked two, and needed only 92 pitches to get through seven complete innings. Hinson allowed just two runners past first base and is now 4-0 in four starts this season at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium.

Jared Simon worked a scoreless eighth inning with two strikeouts while Josh Dew finished the game with a scoreless ninth.

Dwayne Pollok took the loss for the Cats, allowing six earned runs on 10 hits in six innings of work. Pollok struck out two and walked none.

Prior to the game, the Wingnuts signed right-handed pitcher Steve MacFarland. MacFarland is 7-11 in his career with a 5.74 ERA over five professional seasons. The 25-year old righty has averaged 9.2 strikeouts per nine innings over 178.2 career innings. MacFarland pitched in the Frontier League last year, going 3-2 with a 5.45 ERA in seven starts for the Washington Wild Things. MacFarland is scheduled to pitch Saturday night at St. Paul.