Wichita 4, Grand Prairie 3 (10 innings) – Box
Wichita used a late rally and a walk-off single by David Espinosa to prevail 4-3 Thursday night. Grand Prairie was up 1-0 in the third thanks to a CF Jordy Hart solo home run. After six scoreless innings, the Winguts tied the game in the bottom of the seventh when 3B TJ Mittelstaedt hit a solo shot. Later in the match-up, the AirHogs took a 3-1 lead in the eighth inning. SS Miguel Castano scored off an error by the pitcher and LF Willie Cabrera hit an RBI-single.
In the bottom of the ninth, Andy LaRoche hit a two-RBI single to tie the match-up at 3-3, sending the game into extras. And then in the bottom of the tenth, Espinosa brought home the game-winning run with a single.Grand Prairie had nine hits while Wichita had six
Kansas City 1, Lincoln 0 – Box
In a true pitcher’s duel, the T-Bones outlasted the Saltdogs 1-0 Thursday night. No runs were scored by either side and neither team could get past second base until Kansas City did in the top of the ninth. The T-Bones had a man on second with no outs in the top of the ninth and then a man on third with one out. 1B Jake Blackwood answered the call by hitting the go-ahead RBI-single to bring RF Starlin Rodriguez home.
Kansas City starting pitcher Kris Regas went seven innings, gave up just four hits, no runs, three walks and struck-out seven batters. Saltdogs pitcher Shairon Martis went eight innings, gave up four hits, no runs, no walks and struck-out four batters. The T-Bones had just five hits while the Saltdogs had just six hits.
Rockland 8, Joplin 7 – Box
Rockland, led by two hits and two RBI by C Marcus Nidiffer, slipped past Joplin 8-7 Thursday night. The Boulders scored the first four runs of the game in the first inning. In that inning, RF Joe Maloney hit a solo homer, Nidiffer hit a two-run homer, and 2B Steve Nyisztor hit an RBI-double. Then in the second, LF Stephen Cardullo hit an RBI-single, Maloney scored an unearned run and Nidiffer added an RBI-double to make it 7-0 Boulders. 3B Giuseppe Papaccio hit a solo homer in the third to increase it to 8-0.
Joplin got its first run in the fifth inning with a solo homer by C Carlos Ramirez and then added another with an unearned run by Oscar Mesa in the sixth. And in the seventh, Ramirez smacked a two-run homer and Mesa scored off a fielder’s choice to make it 8-5 Boulders. Ramirez returned in the eighth for another encore. He hit a two-run homer – his third of the game – to slice the lead to 8-7 Boulders. But no offense could be summoned for the Blasters in the last inning.
Sioux City 4, St. Paul 3 – Box
Sioux City used a couple late runs to get past St. Paul 4-3 Thursday night. St. Paul went up 1-0 in the second after 1B Angelo Songco scored on an error by the pitcher. Sioux City LF Brent Keys tied it up with an RBI-single in the third. St. Paul moved ahead 3-1 in the sixth when C Joey Paciorek hit a two-run homer.
In the bottom of the eighth, Sioux City had runners on second and third with no outs. DH Tim Colwell brought home the tying run with a two-RBI triple and Keys hit an RBI-double to score the go-ahead run. Sioux City starting pitcher Ryan Strufing went 5.1 innings, gave up four hits, 3 runs, and struck-out four batters. St. Paul starting pitcher Jeff Shields went 7.1 innings, gave up 10 hits, four runs, and struck-out two batters.
Laredo 7, Amarillo 4 – Box
The Laredo Lemurs held off a late-inning rally by the Thunderheads to get a 7-4 victory Thursday night. In the first inning Laredo got RBI-singles from RF D’Vontrey Richardson and 1B Dustin Geiger and another run off an error to take a 3-0 lead. The lead was cut to 3-2 in the second inning after an RBI-single by 3B Christian Ibarra. But Laredo followed that up with three more runs of its own in the bottom half – DH Jeudy Valdez had an RBI-double and 2B Kevin Taylor had two-run homer. Later, in the sixth inning, Taylor hit an RBI-single to extend Laredo’s lead to 7-1.
Amarillo put three runs on the board to cut the lead to 7-4, but the advantage was too much for the Thunderheads to surmount.
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