The Laredo Lemurs got a bases loaded sacrifice fly by Alvaro Rondon in the bottom of the ninth, beating Kansas City, 2-1, Monday night at Uni-Trade Stadium in Laredo, Texas.
With the game tied at one in the bottom of the ninth, Kansas City brought in pitcher Aaron Baker, who immediately surrendered a single to Denis Phipps. After Jesus Posso sacrificed Phipps to second, Baker (1-2) allowed a hit to J.D. Pulfer and then loaded the bases by walking Zane Chavez. Rondon launched a fly ball to centerfield that scored Phipps.
Kansas City got a strong performance from starter Mike Kickham, who gave up one run in 7 innings and held the Lemurs to four hits. Evan DeLuca kept things rolling in his 1 inning of relief, allowing one baserunner on a walk, but striking out two.
Kickham’s only hiccup came in the sixth inning. Back-to-back singles from Leandro Castro and Abel Nieves put runners on the corners before Cesar Valera dropped a perfect squeeze bunt down the first-base line that scored Castro and gave Laredo a 1-0 lead.
The T-Bones tied it in the top of the eighth. In Jose Nivar’s third inning of relief, Starlin Rodriguez led off the inning by reaching on an error by center fielder Drew Martinez. Brett Wiley who was selected as the league’s Player of the Week earlier in the day, brought Rodriguez home with an RBI single, his third hit of the night. After Jake Blackwood struck out, Anthony Gallas and Tyler Massey each singled, loading the bases. Nivar worked around that, however, by striking out Vladimir Frias and getting Dalton Wheat to ground out. The T-Bones stranded nine runners in the game, with six of those nine in scoring position.
Kamakani Usui (2-2) pitched a perfect ninth, with two strikeouts, picking up the win for the Lemurs.
Josh Hodges will make his first start for Kansas City (22-28) against Laredo (30-21) Tuesday night at 7:05. All action can be heard online at TBonesBaseball.com.
– Story from Matt Fulks, T-Bones
