Wingnuts Split With X's

WICHITA, KS- The Wichita Wingnuts split a double header with the Sioux City Explorers on Friday night at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium, dropping game one 5-0 and winning the finale 6-3.

Steve Pearson had three hits in the night cap, while Brandon Mathes pitched two scoreless relief innings to earn his first professional win.

The Wingnuts broke a 2-2 tie with a four-run bottom of the fourth.  Steve Pearson legged out a double to right-center, just beating Jon Owings' relay throw to second base.  Michael Thompson laid down a bunt single to the right side.  With home plate vacated, Pearson scored all the way from second to give the Wingnuts a 3-2 lead.

Two batters latter, Tony Mansolino used a hit-and-run single to move Thompson to second.  Eric Williams singled on a hit-and-run on the very next pitch to score Thompson and make it 4-2.  Mansolino scored from third on a sacrifice fly from Ryan Patterson while Josh Horn capped off the inning with a two-out, RBI double down the left field line.

T.J. Bohn gave the X's a quick 2-0 lead with a two-run home run to center field in the top of the first.  Sioux City went on to load the bases against Doug Hurn with only one out, but Hurn limited the damage, getting Derek Schermerhorn on a foul popout and striking out Jared Keel.

Wichita scratched out unearned runs in both the first and second to tie the game.  Josh Horn brought in a run with a double play ball in the first, while Tony Mansolino's sacrifice fly in the second.

Mathes relieved Hurn with second and third and two out in the fourth and induced a groundout by Darrick Hale to end the inning and set up the Wingnuts' go-ahead rally in the bottom half.

The Wingnuts lost the opener 5-0, marking the third time in five games the Wingnuts were held scoreless.

A bases loaded walk to Kent Sakamoto helped the Explorers open a 1-0 lead in the top of the third.  Jon Owings made it 2-0 with a long solo home run to center field in the top of the fourth.

Sioux City tacked on two more runs in the top of the fifth.  After Massetti struck out the first two hitters, T.J. Bohn doubled off the bottom of the fence in left-center field.  Kent Sakamoto drove him in with a single to right and then scored from first on Ray Serrano's RBI double down the left field line.

Brett Mieras hit a sacrifice fly in the top of the sixth to extend the lead to 5-0.

Luke Massetti went 5.2 innings, allowing five runs, four earned, in the loss.  Ty Marotz pitched three scoreless innings in the start, but had to leave after being struck on his pitching arm by a Mario Delgado line drive that ended the bottom of the third.

Wichita left six runners on base.  Jeff Christy extended his hitting streak to 15 games in a row.

The Wingnuts and Explorers play game three of their series Saturday at 7:05 p.m.  Sean Teague squares off against right-hander David Trahan.  For tickets, call the Wingnuts' office at (316) 264-NUTS.

-Wingnuts-