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AA St. Paul Saints

Mr. 1000: Manager George Tsamis Reaches Historic Milestone in Saints 6-5 Come from Behind Victory

June 13, 2018 - American Association (AA)
St. Paul Saints News Release


ST. PAUL, MN - On June 12, 2018 George Tsamis officially joined the rare company that only three other Independent League managers have achieved. He joined Butch Hobson (currently with the Chicago Dogs), Doug Simunic (formerly with the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks), and Greg Tagert (currently with the Gary SouthShore Railcats) as the only Independent League managers to reach 1,000 wins. The Saints came from behind and scored two runs in the eighth to defeat the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks 6-5 on Tuesday night at CHS Field in front of 7,818.

With the Saints trailing 5-3 in the seventh Josh Allen drilled his second home run of the night, a solo shot to left, and his fourth of the season, to get the Saints within a run. He extended his hitting streak to 13 games by going 2-4 with a career tying high two home runs, three RBI and two runs scored.

The Saints were able to do what they couldn't do on Monday, come back from a 5-4 deficit in the eighth. Dante Bichette Jr. led off with a double to right. Jayce Boyd then sent one deep to right that just went over a leaping Tim Colwell for a double. Bichette Jr. had to hold up to make sure Colwell didn't catch it and advanced to third. The RedHawks then brought in left-hander Anthony Pacillo to face the lefty Kes Carter and Carter drew a walk to load the bases. Justin O'Conner then lifted a fly ball to right that scored Bichette Jr. from third and advanced pinch runner Richard Prigatano to third as the Saints tied the game at five. Reliever Jose Nivar took over and after Carter stole second, JJ Gould lined a single into center scoring Prigatano to give the Saints the one run lead.

In the ninth closer Tom Wilhelmsen took over, but gave up a leadoff single to Keury De La Cruz. Leobaldo Pina hit a tapper in front of the plate and the ball hit him as he ran out of the batters box, forcing Pina and sending De La Cruz back to first. O'Conner, who had tried to back pick a number of runners this season, finally had it pay off when he threw behind De La Cruz, who strayed too far off the bag at first, to get the second out of the inning. The final out, the one that got George Tsamis win number 1000 in his career, was a broken bat grounder by Tim Colwell to the second baseman Allen. Tsamis was immediately congratulated by his pitching coach Kerry Ligtenberg and hitting coach Ole Sheldon and received an ice water dousing from his team.

The win for Tsamis was his 67th over the RedHawks, the third most wins over any team in his career. He has defeated the Sioux Falls Canaries 127 times and the Sioux City Explorers 116 times.

Tsamis recorded his first victory as a manager with the Waterbury Spirits in 1999 and won 76 games with them in two seasons. He added 107 wins with the New Jersey Jackals in 2001 and 2002, both championship years. The win on Tuesday night was number 817 in his Saints career.

The same two teams meet in the finale of the three-game series on Wednesday afternoon at 1:05 p.m. The Saints send RHP Matt Solter (1-1, 1.40) to the mound against RedHawks LHP Sebastian Kessay (1-1, 2.57). It is a celebration of Mr. Rogers presented by Talecris Plasma. The game can be seen on the Saints Cable Network, cable access channels in and around the Twin Cities area, and heard on Alt 93.3 FM.

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