Medina and Bats Win Fourth Straight

WICHITA, KS- The Wichita Wingnuts beat the Grand Prairie AirHogs 11-3 at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium on Saturday night.

Gabe Medina tossed the first nine-inning complete game of his career to earn the win, while the Wingnuts' offense scored in six of eight innings to provide Medina plenty of support.

Tied at 1-1 in the second, Rene Ruiz drove in the go-ahead run with a fielder's choice to first base.  Ryan Patterson singled home Ruiz with two outs later in the inning to increase the lead to 3-1.

The AirHogs made it a one-run game in the fifth on a sacrifice fly by Nook Logan.  The Wingnuts responded with two in the bottom half thanks to three walks.  Jorge Cortes, Jackson Melian, and Mario Delgado all earned free passes to open the inning, the last of which came against reliever Wade Morrison.  Jeff Christy and Steve Pearson followed with consecutive RBI singles through the right side to make it 5-3 Wichita.

The AirHogs scored their final run in the top of the sixth on an RBI single from Greg Porter.  The Wingnuts again answered back with a multi-run inning to break the game open.  Josh Horn led off the inning with a walk and scored from first on Patterson's triple down the left field line.  Cortes drove in Patterson with a groundball single up the middle.  Cortes moved to second on a groundball by Melian and to third on a passed ball by catcher Chris Caves.  Christy's infled single to shortstop scored Cortes and opened an 8-3 advantage.

Medina cruised over the final three innings, allowing just one hit.  Medina finished the night with seven strikeouts while walking only one.  Medina scattered seven hits and threw 122 pitches in the win.

Patterson drove in his fourth run of the night in the seventh on a long double to left field, again scoring Horn from first.  Michael Bell hit a two-run double to left-center with the bases loaded in the eighth to cap of the night for Wichita.

Patterson had four hits in addition to his four RBI, while Horn scored three runs.  All nine Wingnuts' starters reached base at least once, while eight had at least one hit.  AirHogs' starter Wade Morrison took the loss, allowing five earned runs in four-plus innings.

The series continues Sunday at 5:05 p.m.  Luke Massetti takes on all-star right-hander Luke Prihoda.  For tickets, call the Wingnuts' office at (316) 264-NUTS.

-Wingnuts-