Brownell gets second early Father's Day present

Published on June 18, 2011 under American Association (AA)
Grand Prairie AirHogs News Release


GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas -- On Friday, Grand Prairie AirHogs pitcher John Brownell and his wife Christi welcomed in their first child, a healthy baby boy born just in time for Father's Day. The next night, the new dad returned to work and pitched seven strong innings to win his sixth game of the year as the AirHogs beat the El Paso Diablos 11-4 in front of 3,272 fans at QuikTrip Park.

Unlike the previous two games of the series where the AirHogs (25-10) had to come back late to win, this time Grand Prairie went up in the second inning and led the rest of the way. With two outs and no one on in the second, Chris McMurray doubled to left, and scored on Guillermo Martinez's triple to center that bounced in front of and then eluded centerfielder Kory Drew.

Grand Prairie broke the game open against Wardell Starling (4-2) in the second, getting four runs on just three hits, an error and three walks (including one to McMurray with the bases loaded), and Cesar Nicolas's solo homer in the fourth made it 6-0. But Starling pitched admirably after that, throwing 130 pitches into the eighth inning as the Diablos (9-26) tried to mount a comeback of their own.

They got two back off Brownell (6-1) in the fifth, but the righty stranded the bases loaded when Chad Gabriel flied out to left, and El Paso added two more on an Antoin Gray homer in the seventh, although Brownell stranded the possible tying run at the plate when he struck out Manny Mejia to end the inning.

Dustin Cameron worked around two two-out baserunners to keep the Diablos off the scoreboard in the eighth, and Starling finally ran out of gas after a single and a walk in the bottom of that frame. Reliever Juan Medina immediately gave the AirHogs a run when he threw a pickoff attempt to first with no one covering, allowing pinch-runner Jake Taylor to score from second and putting Danny Figueroa on third. Medina got David Espinosa and David Thomas out without Figueroa scoring, but then the floodgates opened. Nicolas, Greg Porter, Tyler Henley and McMurray all picked up hits, as the AirHogs tacked on five runs in the eighth to provide the final seven-run margin, which Jakob Cunningham protected with a scoreless ninth.

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American Association Stories from June 18, 2011


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