Cowart and Bats Lead Wingnuts

WICHITA, KS- The Wichita Wingnuts defeated the Sioux City Explorers 6-2 at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium on Saturday night.

Kent Sakamoto hit a two-out, RBI double to straight away center field in the top of the first to give the Explorers a 1-0 lead. 

Wichita took the lead with three runs in the bottom of the second.  After a one-out single to right from Ryan Patterson, Chris Colton doubled to the wall in left-center field to score Patterson and tie the game.  Michael Thompson and Jeff Christy singled to load the bases.  Patrick Brooks was next and singled to center field to plate two runs and make it 3-1.

Colton reached on an infield single in the bottom of the fourth and scored on Thompson's RBI double down the left field line.  Thompson advanced to third on a wild pitch and came home when Patrick Brooks doubled to the fence in left.

Sioux City inched closer on a solo home run to left-center by Kent Sakamoto in the top of the seventh, his second home run in as many nights.

Adam Cowart pitched 6.2 great innings to earn the win, allowing two earned runs on six hits.  From the second through the sixth, Cowart retired 13 hitters in a row.  Cowart struck out four and walked none.

Doug Hurn faced a first and second, no out jam in the top of the eighth, but retired the side without allowing a run to score.  Hurn froze Sakamoto on a called third stirke to end the inning with runners on the corners.

Josh Horn doubled off the left field wall leading off the eighth to extend his hitting streak to 15 in a row, tying Dustan Mohr for the second longest streak in club history.  Mario Delgado followed with an RBI double to left-center to extend the Wingnuts' lead to 6-2.

The Wingnuts finish their series with Sioux City Sunday at 5:05 p.m.  Gabe Medina goes to the mound against Jae Jung.  For tickets, call the Wingnuts' office at (316) 264-NUTS.

-Wingnuts-