{EL PASO, Tx.} — The Wichita Wingnuts lost 3-2 to the El Paso Diablos at Cohen Stadium on Sunday evening.
With St. Paul's win at Gary SouthShore earlier on Sunday, the Wingnuts, Saints, and RailCats are once again in a three-way tie for the final two playoff spots with two games left in the regular season.
The Wingnuts got off to a fast start for a second straight night, scoring twice in the top of the first, but managed zero runs the rest of the way. In the bottom of the fifth, Brian Joynt reached on an infield single when Josh Horn deflected a groundball on his backhand side into shallow left field. After Adam DeLeo lined out to center, Kory Drew lined a single to center field that put runners on first and third with two outs.
Drew took off for second and stopped short of the bag to set up a rundown play. When Edwin Bellorin threw down to second base, Joynt broke for home plate. Jimmy Mojica quickly fired back to Bellorin, but Joynt narrowly slid underneath the tag to cut the Wingnuts' lead to 2-1. Maikol Gonzalez reached on an infield single to third base to put the tying and go-ahead runs on base. With Gonzalez in motion off first, Albenis Machado blooped a single into shallow center field that scored both Drew and Gonzalez to give El Paso a 3-2 lead.
