AA Winnipeg Goldeyes

Goldeyes Fall to Wingnuts in First Ever Clash

Published on August 12, 2011 under American Association (AA)
Winnipeg Goldeyes News Release


The Wichita Wingnuts, trying desperately to catch the Gary Southshore RailCats in the Central Division, drew first blood in a weekend series at Shaw Park.

With a pair of runs in the seventh inning - one of them unearned - the Wingnuts beat the Winnipeg Goldeyes 3-1 to improve to 46-38 on the season and keep pace with Gary in the American Association's Central Division.

Meanwhile, with the loss, the Goldeyes fell to 49-35 and had to wait until the rain-delayed game in Fargo ended before finding out if they got some help from the RedHawks in their game with second-place St. Paul. If Fargo won, the Goldeyes would retain a one-game lead over the Saints in the race for first in the North Division.

Wichita opened the scoring in the first inning when a Carlos Rivera ground out drove home Mike Conroy. The Goldeyes tied it in the fifth when Ridge Carpenter scored on a double by Kody Kaiser. Then, in the seventh, the Wingnuts got all they needed.

Peter Barrows led off with a single, went to second on a sacrifice bunt by Edwin Bellorin and then got to third on an error by Goldeyes shortstop Wes Long. With Barrows on third and Jose Duran at first, Mike Conroy doubled and drove both Barrows and Duran home and the Wingnuts were on their way.

"It wasn't a bad baseball game," said Goldeyes manager Rick Forney. "Unfortunately, we couldn't get anything going offensively and we made that big error in the seventh inning."

Wichita starter Ryan Hinson (11-5, 3.03 ERA) was the winning pitcher, while Goldeyes starter Luis Villarreal (5-3, 4.02 ERA) suffered the loss. Wingnuts closer Josh Dew (1.00 ERA) got his 17th save of the season.

"I thought their pitcher (Hinson) had a real good game tonight, he was dialed in," said Forney. "He had three pitches going out there and if you have three pitches and you're throwing strikes and you're using both sides of the plate you're going to be successful.

"Our guys were just a little impatient tonight. When a guy is dialed in like Hinson was, you have to show more patience and wait for the pitcher to make a mistake. We didn't do that and Hinson did a good job out there."

Game 2 of this three-game weekend series goes Saturday night at Shaw Park. Chris Salamida (9-3, 3.26) will get the start for Winnipeg while Derek Blacksher (6-8, 4.27 ERA) will toe the slab for Wichita. Game time on Friday is 6 p.m. and can be heard live with Paul Edmonds on Sports Radio 1290 or seen live on Shaw TV with Scott Taylor, Jamie Bettens and Jim Toth.




American Association Stories from August 12, 2011


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