Sox win third straight game

August 24, 2013 - American Association (AA)
Amarillo ThunderHeads News Release


AMARILLO, TX - The Sox win 5-2 against the Saltdogs at Amarillo National Bank Sox Stadium. Jason Mitchell earned his eighth victory of the season as Amarillo hit over twice as many times as Lincoln. The crowd of 2,887 saw sixteen hits for the home team in a game that lasted two hours and fifty-three minutes.

Amarillo threatened in the second inning after starter for the Saltdogs, Mike Burns allowed two hits and a walk to load the bases. With Jason Martin at the plate, Burns struck him out to end the inning. The Sox came back with two runs in the third on back-to-back doubles by Cory Patton and Kyle Nichols and later a KC Serna RBI-single. In the fourth inning, Amarillo made it 3-0 after the first two batters singled and the bases got loaded by a walk. Cory Patton would ground into a double play, scoring Adam DeLaGarza from third. Patton grounded into double plays twice, hit a single and a double, and scored twice in the game.

Jason Mitchell only faced three batters in each of the second through fifth innings as Curt Smith was caught trying to steal second during the fourth and then Matt Forgatch was picked off first base during the fifth. Mitchell went four batters into the sixth, striking out two in the inning and allowing a hit and a walk. The replacement for Amarillo's starter, Josh Giles struck out Curt Smith, his only batter faced in the game. Cephas Howard pitched the seventh for the Sox.

Lincoln would score in the seventh with a double by Brian Joynt, followed immediately with a single by Matt Forgatch to score Joynt. Howard struck out three batters in his appearance. In the bottom of the inning, Amarillo started with a pair of hits from Chris Grossman and Patton. Kyle Nichols came up and hit a grounder which was mishandled by Bryan Pounds at shortstop. The ball went into left-center which plated both runners, the score was then 5-1. Stayton Thomas replaced Mike Burns after the error and on his first pitch to Joe Weik, got him to ground into a double play. He would later get out of the inning with two singles allowed. Thomas gave up two hits in the eighth but forced another ground-ball double play to leave the inning.

During the top of the eighth, Kristhiam Linares faced four batters, walking two and giving up a single while recording one out. Andrew Romo relieved Linares, gave up an infield hit, and then struck out two batters with the bases loaded, getting out of the jam. The hit by Ian Gac was a run-batted-in as Romo came in with all bases occupied. For the ninth, Erik Draxton (S, 13) faced four batters and struck out three while walking one.

Jason Mitchell (W, 8-5) went five and two-thirds, allowing no runs on three hits with two walks and seven strikeouts. Mike Burns (L, 7-5) allowed all five Sox runs on twelve hits while walking two and striking out four. Stayton Thomas had two innings out of the bullpen for Lincoln and was hit off of four times with no runs scoring while walking a batter.

With the win, the Sox improve to 49-43, while the Saltdogs fall to 48-44 on the season. Sunday, the Sox host the last game of the series against the Saltdogs and final scheduled game at home. The game time is set for 6:05pm with the pregame show starting at 5:55pm on Ustream via www.amarillosox.com .

Season tickets are available for purchase in-person by visiting the Sox Front Offices at 801 S. Polk or over the phone by calling (806) 242-4653. For more information on tickets, game times and schedules, promotions, marketing opportunities, and everything else Sox, visit the "Official Website of the Amarillo Sox" at www.amarillosox.com.



American Association Stories from August 24, 2013


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