Birds Outlasted, 4-3 In 13 Innings
Published on May 20, 2009 under American Association (AA)
Sioux Falls Canaries News Release
Wichita, KS - The Sioux Falls Canaries (2-4) and Wichita Wingnuts (5-1) took 13 innings to settle things on Wednesday night, but when the dust cleared, the first home run of the year from Joe Muich gave the Wingnuts a 4-3 win.
Wichita started the scoring in the bottom of the fourth inning. Kelly Hunt led off with a single and advanced to second on a wild pitch. Hunt got to third on a groundout by Muich, and came in to score on a single by Stephen Pearson. After four innings, the Wingnuts led, 1-0.
The Canaries came right back with three runs. Tim Hutting opened the inning with a single and Alex Bardeguez followed with a four pitch walk. Joe Anthonsen looked to sacrifice the runners over, but as he squared to bunt he was hit by a pitch. With the bases loaded, Trevor Lawhorn doubled up the left-field line. Hutting, Bardeguez, and Anthonsen all scored, giving the Canaries a 3-1 lead.
The Wingnuts got one run in the sixth and one in the seventh to tie the game. In the sixth, Hunt doubled and scored on a single by Muich. An inning later, Nick Blasi opened the seventh with a single and eventually scored on a wild pitch. After seven complete, the game was all tied up, 3-3.
The game remained tied until the bottom of the 13th inning, despite both teams having opportunities to score on multiple occasions. The first batter in the bottom of the 13th was Muich, who homered off Kyle Zaleski to give Wichita the 4-3 win.
Zaleski (0-1) gave up a run for the first time this season in suffering the loss for the Canaries. Travis Kane started for the Birds and left with the lead after five innings which saw him allow just one run on three hits. Chris Weast was the Canaries star out of the bullpen. Weast pitched five shutout innings, beginning with the eighth, and struck out six while allowing only two walks and one hit. Tyler Rhoden (1-0) pitched 2.1 shutout innings to get the win for Wichita.
The Canaries will look to avoid the sweep in the 7:05 p.m. series finale on Thursday night at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium.
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