Longballs, More Good Pitching Get AirHogs Series Win

Published on August 11, 2011 under American Association (AA)
Grand Prairie AirHogs News Release


KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- The Grand Prairie AirHogs continued their success in 2011 at CommunityAmerica Ballpark and against the Central Division of the American Association, as Stephen Douglas, David Espinosa and John Alonso all homered to lead the AirHogs to an 8-3 win over the Kansas City T-Bones on Thursday, taking three of four in the series.

After Trent Lare (3-4) retired the first 10 AirHogs hitters, Douglas pulled a 1-0 pitch down the rightfield line, just over the wall and just inside the foul pole, for his second home run of the year and his first with Grand Prairie (53-30) to break the scoreless tie.

Six pitches later, Espinosa pulled a full-count offering over the leftfield wall to make it 2-0, and after a Kala Ka'aihue solo homer in the bottom of the fourth, Espinosa's two-run single with the bases loaded in the next inning gave the AirHogs a 4-0 advantage.

Professional debutant Frank Abbl worked around a first-and-third, no-out jam in the first inning, and two walks in the second, before Ka'aihue's homer in the fourth became his first professional run allowed and snapped the AirHogs' 22-inning shutout streak.

The rookie from Northwood (Texas) University then walked two more in the fifth and was pulled with one out for Bo Schultz (3-3). The righty threw 80 pitches and finished with one run allowed on three hits and five walks with no strikeouts.

Schultz worked 2 2/3 innings and allowed one more run, but Grand Prairie got four more runs in the sixth to put things away.

Alonso homered after Cesar Nicolas reached on an error starting that frame to make it 6-1, and Douglas had a two-run infield single on the 11th pitch of his at-bat with new reliever Drew Graham.

Kyle Gunderson went the final two innings as Kansas City (39-44) got its final run on Aharon Eggleston's two-out, eighth-inning solo shot. But Gunderson came back to strike out three of the final four batters to end things.

Notes: The AirHogs finished their season series 9-2 against Kansas City, all on the road, while finishing their regular season 21-9 against the five teams in the Central Division, including a 13-4 mark on the road...The T-Bones had their leadoff hitter reach in six of their nine innings, including each frame from the fifth through the eighth, but only one of those runners scored...Grand Prairie left 10 on base while Kansas City stranded eight...The AirHogs held the T-Bones to exactly six hits in each of the final three games of the series...Gunderson has allowed five home runs in 9 1/3 innings with the AirHogs after allowing 11 in 177 2/3 innings in his career coming into this season.

The AirHogs now head home to start a three-game series against the El Paso Diablos, starting Friday, August 12. It is Faith and Family Night presented by KLTY Radio, featuring a postgame concert and testimonies of praise from former and current athletes. The game begins at 6:05 p.m. There will also be a postgame Boy Scout camp-out on the field. 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.

Share: Facebook | Twitter/X | LinkedIn | Reddit | Email



American Association Stories from August 11, 2011


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central