'Nuts rally to gain ground

August 17, 2011|Eyewitness Sports

wichita, ks — The Wichita Wingnuts overtook the wild card lead on Wednesday night, defeating the Kansas City T-Bones 6-5 at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium.

With St. Paul's loss at Winnipeg, the Wingnuts are now a half-game in front of the Saints in the wild card standings, and one full game ahead in the loss column. It marks the first time in 56 days the Wingnuts have held one of the American Association's four playoff spots. After Gary SouthShore's loss versus Shreveport-Bossier, the Wingnuts are within 1.5 games of the RailCats for the Central Division lead with 12 games remaining on their schedule.

Trailing 5-2 in the bottom of the seventh, the Wingnuts sent nine men to the plate in a four-run rally that gave them their first and only lead of the night. Facing reliever Steven Stewart, Mike Conroy checked his swing, but lined a double down the left field line. After Jimmy Mojica grounded out to third base, Josh Horn reached via a hit batsman after attempting to bunt for a base hit. Juan Richardson pulled a double to left-center field that scored Conroy and cut the lead to 5-3. Carlos Rivera worked out a walk to load the bases.

Brian Grening relieved Stewart, and retired Jorge Delgado on a short flyball to right field. Mitch Einertson hit a broken bat, line drive single to left to score Horn and bring the Wingnuts within a run. With the bases still loaded and two out, Josh Workman pinch hit for Gerardo Bustamante and singled up the middle to drive in the tying and go-ahead runs.

After a leadoff walk in the top of the eighth, Matt Nevarez relieved Logan Hoch and retired the next three hitters in order to keep the lead intact. Josh Dew took over in the top of the ninth and stranded the tying run on second to preserve the win.

Keanon Simon tripled with two outs and no one on base in the top of the third against Wingnuts' starter Marcos Tabata. Simon scored when Jose Duran lined a single to center, giving Kansas City a 1-0 lead.

The T-Bones added three more runs in the fifth. Peter Barrows led off with a walk, took second on Simon's hit-and-run groundout to second, and scored on another single to center from Duran. Tabata struck out Rico Washington for the second out of the inning before Ray Sadler doubled down the left field line to score Duran and make it 3-0. Nick Singleton relieved Tabata and allowed an RBI double to Jim Fasano for the T-Bones' fourth run.

The Wingnuts got on the board in the bottom of the fifth. Edwin Bellorin drew a leadoff walk and advanced to third when Conroy doubled to right field. Mojica plated Bellorin with a groundout to second. Horn knocked in Conroy with a groundball single through the left side.

Tabata took a no-decision, allowing four earned runs on six hits in four and two-thirds innings. Tabata walked three, struck out three, and was making his first start in exactly four years.

Kendy Batista earned the win for the Wingnuts, allowing one earned run in two innings.

Reid Santos started for Kansas City and took a no-decision, allowing two earned runs on three hits. Santos walked four and struck out one. Stewart absorbed the loss for the T-Bones.

In the bottom of the eighth, Mike Conroy led off with a triple. It was Conroy's eighth triple of the season, and his 20th in three seasons in the American Association, tying Jake Whitesides' career record.

The series concludes Thursday night with Derek Blacksher facing left-hander Kris Johnson.

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