AA Sioux City Explorers

Young has seven RBI in X's wild 9-8 win at Wichita

July 27, 2008 - American Association (AA)
Sioux City Explorers News Release


WICHITA, KS -- It was anything but a normal game Sunday afternoon but Walter Young provided the big offensive spark that the X's expected out of the veteran as the first baseman homered and drove in 7 runs leading the Explorers to a 9-8 win at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium.

The Explorers scored early off of Wingnuts starter Asher Demme -- who had not pitched in nearly 2 years. Dustin Jones started the game with a walk and then stole 2nd base. Jason Tuttle then singled with Jones stopping at third and Alex Llanos would walk to load the bases with nobody out. Young would hit a chopper to first to score Jones and reach on a fielders choice RBI. Chris Grossman would then single in Tuttle and the X's had a 2-0 lead. Demme would last just 1/3 inning.

Wichita scored once in the 2nd on a RBI fielders choice by Chris Colton and then in third with 1 out, Kevin Hooper hit a grounder to short that Enohel Polanco would boot but Hooper would be given credit for a single. Blake Gailen then lined a pitch up the middle that hit X's starter Cameron Cheek on his arm and it deflected towards first. Cheek tried to push the ball to first with his glove but it got away from Young and Hooper took third on the error while Gailen was credited with a hit. Cheek had to leave the game after just 2 1/3 innings with a bruised arm.

In came Ty Marotz and the first pitch he threw, Brenan Herrera lined to left for a 2 run double and the Nuts had a 3-2 lead. The inning wasn't over, however, as Vic Davilla reached on an error by Young and then Michael Thompson hit a high pop up to third that Juan Camacho caught on the line. Wichita then tried to get the X's napping sending Davilla to 2nd and when Camacho threw to McCoola, Hooper broke for home plate. McCoola's throw home was on the money to retire Hooper for a strange double play to end the third.

That was only the beginning of the craziness yet to come. The X's would continue the see-saw affair and took back the lead in the top of the 5th. With 1 out and 1 on, Young drilled a line shot over the right field wall off of reliever Justin Young for a 2 run HR, his first as an Explorer, and a 4-3 X's lead.

Wichita got the lead back in the bottom of the 5th. Marotz (2-3) gave up a leadoff walk to Hooper and Blake Gailen bunted him to 2nd. Herrera hit a shot down the right field line that Tuttle made a diving attempt for and missed giving Gailen a RBI triple. Davilla then gave the Wingnuts the lead again on a RBI single and it was 5-4 Wichita.

The X's came right back in the top of the 6th. Chad Gabriel had a leadoff single, moved to 2nd on a bunt by Enohel Polanco and scored on McCoola's RBI single. Jones kept the inning going with a base hit knocking Young from the game. In came Kevin Cheppenko and after Tuttle flied out, Llanos walked to load the bases and then Young ripped a 2 run single to right. Sioux City had a 7-5 lead.

Wichita scored once in the 6th on a RBI single by Hoope off of Alexander Francisco to pull to within 1. In the 7th, Matt Kretzschmar came on for the X's and after Davilla got a 1 out single, the DH tried to tag and advance to 2nd on a fly out to center by Thompson but Jones threw him out. In the bottom of the 7th, Enohel Polanco struck out and was ejected for arguing with the umpire Trent Delmont and then X's manager Les Lancaster was ejected for the 5th this year for arguing with Delmont. Derek Schermerhorn came in to replace Polanco, moving McCoola to short.

Sioux City still had a 1 run lead going into the 8th when Cheppenko gave up singles to Jones and Tuttle and Llanos walked to load the bases. Llanos then left the game with a sore hamstring, replaced by Sam Walker. Amad Stephens came in to face Young who promptly drilled a single to right, scoring 2 more runs and the X's had a 9-6 lead. Young had to leave the game, however, when he cramped up in the 90+ heat and Tug Gillingham pinch ran for him. Stephens would then have to leave the game with an injury and Doug Rider got Gabriel to bounce into a double play with the bases loaded to end the inning.

In the bottom of the 8th, Kretzschmar would give up walks to Stephen Pearson and Felipe Del Rosario with 1 out and in came X's closer Brett Reid. Reid got Bub Bergstrom to hit a chopper towards Reid and he got the out at first but Pearson scored to make it 9-7. Hooper then walked and stole 2nd. Gailen then hit a grounder to Walker at short, who hesitated on going to first base but found Hooper rounding the bag at third. Walker got Hooper in a rundown while Del Rosario scored and Grossman tagged out Hooper to end the inning but Wichita had pulled to within 1; it was 9-8 X's.

After the X's spoiled a chance for insurance runs in the top of the 9th, Reid ended the drama with a 1-2-3 9th inning, striking out Thompson on 3 straight pitches to secure the win and his 15th save.

Young was the offensive herro, going 3-5 with 7 RBI. In the 1B's first 2 games, Young has 4 hits, 9 RBI and 8 at-bats. Jones went 2-4 with 2 walks, 2 stolen bases and 3 runs. Tuttle went 3-6 with 2 runs. Camacho went 3-4.

The game took 4 hours even to play. There were a combined 10 pitchers used. The X's used 17 players, including 5 pitchers and 12 positional players. Sioux City had 4 double plays in the game.

The X's will try to make it 2 in a row against Wichita on Monday night and Tim Layden (5-5) will get the start for the Explorers while Leonards Landeros (5-3) is the scheduled starter for Wichita. Game time is 7:05 with coverage on 1360 KSCJ and xsbaseball.com.

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