Samson Sets Hits Record and X's Shut out Hogs
August 30, 2018 - American Association (AA) - Sioux City Explorers News Release
Sioux City, IA - The Sioux City Explorers for the second time in 2018 were able to post consecutive shut outs as they blank the Texas Airhogs 4-0. While Nate Samson broke a single season hits record as he recorded his 138th hit of the season.
James Dykstra lead the way with seven shut out innings. He scattered 5 hits and struck out 8 in the game while walking only one. Dykstra (9-4) was able to pick up his first win since August 9th. Dykstra followed up on Jason Garcia's performance the night before, a complete game shut out by twirling 7 innings of zero's himself.
Dykstra was followed by Ryan Horstman and Ryan Flores out of the bullpen, both of whom pitched a scoreless inning each and recorded all their outs by strike outs. Sioux City racked up 14 punch outs in the ball game and recorded the final seven outs of the contest with strike outs.
Sioux City's offense provided Dykstra all the run support he would need in the first three innings. Michael Lang singled with one out in the first and would get to third on a Nate Samson double. Lang would then score and give Sioux City a 1-0 lead on a Jose Sermo sacrifice fly to right.
Jay Baum began the second with a lead off double, he would then score on a base hit by Dexture McCall with two outs in the inning to make it 2-0 Sioux City. McCall would then steal second base and then score on a Luis Durango base knock to go up 3-0.
Durango's base hit marked the 1,000th hit of the season for Sioux City. As it is just the third time in franchise history that a team has reached that mark in a season with 2015 and 2011 being the other two occurrences. The record for most hits in a season for a team belongs to the 2015 squad who has 1,014. Though the Explorers finished the ball game tonight with 12 hits putting them at 1,007 on the season with four games left to play.
In the third Dean Green lead off the inning with a single. Blake Schmit followed with a base hit and Dylan Kelly walked to load the bases. McCall would then drive In his second run of the game with a base hit and put the X's up 4-0. Though the Sioux City offense left the bases loaded for the second time in as many innings as Sioux City would go on to leave 12 men on base in the game.
In the sixth Nate Samson set a new Explorers single season record with his 138th hit of the season. Breaking the previous record of 137 which had been set by himself during his 2016 American Association Player of the Year campaign.
Sioux City will go for the sweep of the Texas Airhogs on Friday night with first pitch at 7:05 as Ian McKinney will take the hill for Sioux City and the Airhogs will announce their starter. It will be the regular season finale at Mercy Field at Lewis and Clark Park as the Explorers finish the season with three games on the road against a potential playoff opponent in Wichita.
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