Janke's Debut a Smashing Success

Published on June 30, 2011 under American Association (AA)
Grand Prairie AirHogs News Release


GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas -- Lance Janke arrived in Grand Prairie on Wednesday evening, and made his debut a night later for the Grand Prairie AirHogs, stifling the Shreveport-Bossier Captains for six innings of one-run, three-hit, one-walk and seven-strikeout baseball, as the AirHogs beat the Captains 3-1 in front of 1,796 at QuikTrip Park.

Janke (1-0) retired the first eight men he faced and 12 of the first 13, and was handed a 1-0 lead in the first thanks to a bloop double by John Alonso. But Palmer Karr doubled to start the fifth, and after Janke mishandled Uriak Marquez's sacrifice bunt, Marquez broke for second when Joe Urtuzuastegui struck out. As Chris McMurray started to throw to second, Karr broke for the plate, and McMurray's throw sailed to center to allow Karr to score easily.

After that, both pitchers, Janke and Shreveport-Bossier's Joel Kirsten (3-4), kept the duel going, with Kirsten not allowing a hit from the third through the sixth, while Janke escaped a two-runner jam in the sixth with back-to-back strikeouts of Andres Rodriguez and Karr.

With two outs and no one on in the sixth, Grand Prairie's offense struck. David Thomas doubled to left to knock out Kirsten, and Danny Figueroa doubled to right-center off Mark Haynes to bring in Thomas and give the AirHogs the lead. David Espinosa followed with an RBI single to make it 3-1, and this time the back of the AirHogs bullpen made the lead stand up.

Bo Schultz made his return to the bullpen by pitching a perfect seventh inning with one strikeout, while Dustin Cameron got three groundouts in a 1-2-3 eighth, including two comebackers. Jon Hunton then allowed two hits in the ninth, but got Marquez to ground into a 3-6-3 double play to end the game and earn the AirHogs (31-15) a split of the four-game series against the second-place Captains (24-21).

Notes: The AirHogs out-hit the Captains 10-5, but left 11 men on base to Shreveport-Bossier's five...Four AirHogs had at least two hits, while only Karr had two for the Captains...Grand Prairie out-scored Shreveport-Bossier 10-0 in the first two innings of the series, while the Captains held a 16-5 advantage the rest of the way.

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The AirHogs spend Independence Day weekend battling their local rivals the Fort Worth Cats, starting Friday night, July 1, at QuikTrip Park at 7:05. The first 500 kids through the gates get an AirHogs t-shirt, while the first 500 adults get an AirHogs cap, both courtesy of Parkland Community Health Plan. 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 30, 2011


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