Wingnuts Outlast Saints

ST. PAUL, MN- The Wichita Wingnuts beat the St. Paul Saints 7-6 at Midway Stadium on Wednesday night.

Four Wichita relievers combined to yield just one run over the final 7.2 innings, allowing the Wingnuts a chance to come from three runs down.

Tied at 6-6 in the top of the seventh, Saints' right-hander Joe D'Alessandro intentionally walked Jorge Cortes with second and third and two outs to load the bases for Jackson Melian.  D'Alessandro fell behind Melian 3-1 before issuing a bases loaded walk that forced in the go-ahead run.

Wichita used RBI's from Melian and Mario Delgado in the top of the first to take a quick 2-0 lead, but the Saints immediately came back in the bottom half.  Brandon Carter's RBI double to right-center drove in Josh Alley who led off the inning with a single through the left side.  Carter was driven in two batters later on a flyball double by Jason Cooper that dropped on top of the left field foul line.  Brent Krause singled home Cooper to give the Saints a 3-2 lead.

St. Paul extended the lead in the second.  Steve Mays led off with a double down the left field line and came home on Alley's single down the right field line.  Carter connected for his second double of the game, this one down the left field line, to score Alley and make it 5-3.  Wingnuts' starter Sean Teague was helped when Carter was caught stealing for the first out of the inning, but walked Ole Sheldon and Cooper back-to-back.

Brandon Mathes was called from the bullpen, and after issuing a walk to Krause to load the bases, Mathes turned a flyball to right from Chad Gabriel into an inning-ending double play when Ole Sheldon was thrown out at the plate by Jorge Cortes.

Jeff Christy's RBI single in the top of the third pulled the Wingnuts within two, but the Saints got the run right back in the bottom half on an RBI single from Josh Petersen.

The Wingnuts chipped away again in the fourth when Josh Horn tripled to left field with one out.  Horn scored when Ryan Patterson tripled on a ball lost by center fielder Josh Alley.  Cortes drove in Patterson with a sacrifice fly to center to cut the lead to 6-5.

The Wingnuts tied the game in the sixth.  Cortes doubled down the left field line with one out and scored two batters later when Delgado singled up the middle.

Dustin Pease earned the win in relief, striking out four in two scoreless innings.  Cephas Howard worked a perfect eighth.

Gerard Haran, pinch-hitting for Carter to lead off the bottom of the ninth, hit a deep flyball to the warning track off of Justin Dowdy that Melian caught for the first out.  Dowdy then struck out Sheldon and Cooper to finish a perfect ninth and record his 11th save of the year.

Joe D'Alessandro took the loss in relief for St. Paul.  Mathes pitched 3.1 innings, allowing one run to give the Wingnuts a chance to come back.  Teague took a no-decision, allowing five earned runs in 1.1 IP.  Ryan Morse also took a no-decision, allowing five earned runs in 5.0 IP.

Delgado extended his hitting streak to 12 games in a row, going 3 for 5.  Cortes was 2 for 2 with two walks, a sacrifice fly, and three runs.  Melian reached base five times with two hits and three walks.  Wingnuts' pitchers allowed one hit over the final six innings and retired 16 of the final 17 hitters to face them.

The Wingnuts and Saints play a rubber game on Thursday at 7:05 p.m.  Nick Singleton opposes right-hander Kyle Foster.  All the action can be heard locally on Oldies 93.5 KWME and worldwide at www.kleyam.com  The Wingnuts return home on Friday, July 9th when they host the Grand Prairie AirHogs.  For tickets, call the Wingnuts' office at (316) 264-NUTS.

-Wingnuts-