Cowart, Wingnuts Blank Dogs

WICHITA, KS- The Wichita Wingnuts shutout the Lincoln Saltdogs 4-0 at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium on Saturday night.

Steve Pearson led off the bottom of the third with a long solo home run to right-center which proved enough offense for Wichita.

Adam Cowart tossed 6.1 shutout innings to earn his second win of the season, stirking out a season-high seven and walking one.  Cowart scattered four hits in the victory.

Cowart was relieved by Dustin Pease with the tying run on first and one out in the seventh.  Pease walked Rafael Alvarez, but retired Juan Richardson on a groundball to short.  Cephas Howard came in and struck out Shawn McGill to strand the tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position.

The Wingnuts broke the game open in the bottom of the eighth.  Chris Colton led off the inning with a single to left-center.  On a hit-and-run, Steve Pearson's groundball to second was booted by Brandon Jones to put men on first and second.  Jeff Christy beat out a sacrifice attempt to load the bases.  Colton scored on Tony Mansolino's sacrifice fly to center.  Later in the inning, Josh Horn singled home two runs to make it 4-0.  The hit extended Horn's hitting streak to 20 games in a row, a new Wingnuts' club record.

Justin Dowdy struck out the side in the ninth inning to lock down the win.  Howard worked 1.1 scoreless innings in relief.  Ryan Patterson collected two hits and is now 10 for his last 19.

The Wingnuts and Saltdogs finish their series Sunday evening at 5:05 p.m.  Gabe Medina goes up against right-hander Jim Paduch.  For tickets, call the Wingnuts' office at (316) 264-NUTS.

-Wingnuts-