Wingnuts Falter for Second Straight Night against Lemurs
Published on July 24, 2014 under American Association (AA)
Wichita Wingnuts News Release
WICHITA, KS (July 23, 2014) - The Wichita Wingnuts fell to their division rival, the Laredo Lemurs, for a second straight night on Wednesday at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium. Unlike the night before, a high-scoring affair, this match-up featured impressive displays of pitching and defense from both sides. In the end it was the visiting team that emerged from the tussle with a 3-1 victory.
Wichita (44-20) jumped on Laredo's starter Cesar Carrillo (5-4) in the bottom of the first inning. The leadoff hitter, Ryan Khoury, hit a line drive to left to get things started. Chris McClendon followed by jumping on the first pitch of his at bat and lifting a high fly ball down the left field line. J.P. Ramirez raced over, but could not reach far enough to make the catch and the ball squirted by him to the wall. Khoury easily scored all the way from first and McClendon settled into second with an RBI double. He would eventually be stranded at third when the inning came to an end.
After Tim Brown (7-3) did not allow a run to the vaunted Laredo (34-28) offense in the first two innings, they wrestled away the lead in the third. Nick Van Stratten led off the inning with a single, which was built upon by a base on balls to the next hitter, J.P. Ramirez. Devin Goodwin put down a sacrifice bunt to put them in scoring position for Travis Denker. Denker racked up RBI number 64 with a single that tied the game. Denis Phipps then hit a bouncer to third that brought in Ramirez and gave Laredo the 2-1 advantage.
The Wingnuts had a big chance to tie or take the lead in the fifth when they had two in scoring position with nobody out for the top of the order. Khoury grounded out to third and then McClendon bounced to second. Denker fielded and ran at Trevor Whyte, who was caught in no man's land between third and home, and after a brief rundown Whyte was tagged out by the third baseman. Jake Kahaulelio grounded out to short to end the threat.
A similar situation arose for the Lemurs in their half of the sixth. They put runners in scoring position with nary an out courtesy of two singles and a wild pitch from Brown. After one out was recorded, and the Wingnuts pitched around Byron Wiley to load the bases, Carlos Ramirez was the batter. With a 2-2 count Brown just missed the outside corner with a fastball that Ramirez let go by and on the next pitch the catcher lifted a sacrifice fly to left field extending the lead to 3-1. Brown allowed no further damage and finished having given up three runs on seven hits in 6.2 innings with six strikeouts.
Carrillo worked through the sixth, handed the ball off to Corey Graham to take care of the seventh and eighth, and then watched as closer Chad Povich entered looking for his second straight save in the ninth. David Amberson and Khoury earned tough walks with one out to put the tying run on base. McClendon struck out looking and Taylor Oldham, who entered when Kahaulelio was ejected following the seventh inning, went down swinging as the Nuts fell just short again.
Daniel Bennett gave Kevin Hooper another scoreless 1.1 inning performance out of the pen. Alex Hinshaw followed Bennett with another shutout inning, his 23rd in 24 appearances, in the top of the ninth. David Espinosa, who made his Wichita debut and was the only Wingnuts with more than one hit, tallied his 1,500th career hit with an infield single in the eighth inning.
The Wingnuts will look to earn a split of the four-game set on Thursday night at 7:05 p.m. RHP Justin Klipp (6-2) will head to the hill to take on Laredo's RHP Josh Strawn (4-7). The Wingnuts will be hosting T95's 35th birthday party at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium. For information on season tickets, group outings, and party packages, call the Wingnuts' main office at (316) 264-NUTS, or visit the Wingnuts' official website at www.wichitawingnuts.com .
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