Henley's Steal of Home Gives AirHogs Dramatic Win

Published on June 25, 2011 under American Association (AA)
Grand Prairie AirHogs News Release


GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas -- With an ending befitting the wild antics of Friday's guest of honor at QuikTrip Park, the Grand Prairie AirHogs beat the El Paso Diablos 3-2 when Tyler Henley stole home plate in the bottom of the ninth inning, sending the crowd of 3,126 home happy after they were entertained by the Famous S.D. Chicken all night.

Henley got aboard after a leadoff walk by Thomas Pearson (0-1), and went to second on a wild pitch to Chris McMurray. After Pearson's first five pitches were out of the strike zone, Diablos manager Jorge Alvarez pulled him for Rigoberto Almonte, making his El Paso debut. McMurray successfully sacrificed Henley to third on the first pitch, bringing up Jake Taylor.

Last Friday, the AirHogs (28-12) were in a similar spot in a tie game in the bottom of the ninth, and tried a suicide squeeze twice with Danny Figueroa fouling off two bunts, before the Grand Prairie centerfielder won the game with a sacrifice fly. The AirHogs made the same call this time around, but Taylor missed the pitch from Almonte with Henley breaking down the line. But catcher Manuel Mejia dropped the ball, and it squirted away from him. After freezing briefly, Henley realized he could score, and slid in head-first with the winning run.

All three Grand Prairie runs were scored by men who drew leadoff walks, with the AirHogs only mustering six hits off four El Paso pitchers. Wardell Starling got a lead in the first when Albenis Machado walked with one out and scored on Johan Garcia's RBI double, but he gave it up right away after walking David Espinosa to start the bottom of the first. After a flyout and a single moved Espinosa to third, Greg Porter's grounder to second tied the game.

It remained tied until the fourth, when Mejia hit a two-out, two-strike home run to left off John Brownell, giving the Diablos (10-30) the lead. Starling held the AirHogs at bay after that, working around a total of five hits and two walks through seven innings.

Brownell was just as good as Starling, if not a little better, allowing nine hits and two runs, but pitching 7 2/3 innings with an AirHogs season-high 11 strikeouts. He was lifted after a two-out walk in the eighth, having thrown 93 of his 134 pitches for strikes. Jakob Cunningham got the final out in the eighth, and the AirHogs tied it in the bottom half, after Jon Plefka's leadoff walk to Espinosa set things up.

David Thomas sacrificed Espinosa to second, and Cesar Nicolas lined a clutch single to right-center to tie the game. After Jon Hunton (4-0) worked a 1-2-3 ninth, the AirHogs were then in the position to win the game with a lone run, which they did to improve their record to 8-0 against El Paso this season.

Notes: All six AirHogs his came from the first four hitters in the batting order, with Nicolas picking up three...Seven of the nine Diablos had at least one hit...Only two Diablos did not strike out at least once. ~~~~~ ~~~~~

The AirHogs continue their three-game series with El Paso on Saturday, June 25 at 7:05 p.m. with QuikTrip Night. Stop by your local QuikTrip for a voucher for a FREE ticket to the game. Plus stay afterwards for another Fireworks Saturday Night spectacular. Don't miss the renewed commitment to excellence and affordable family entertainment. All games are available with live, free streaming video on ustream.tv. Individual game tickets are on sale and can be purchased by calling 972-504-9383 or by visiting www.airhogsbaseball.com.

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American Association Stories from June 25, 2011


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