Rain put a damper on Tuesday’s game as the umpires deemed the field unplayable, so the Kansas City T-Bones faced off against the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks in a doubleheader Wednesday at T-Bones Stadium. But the RedHawks put a damper on the T-Bones’ Wednesday as they swept the doubleheader.
In the first game, Fargo-Moorhead defeated Kansas City 5-4 in ten innings. The T-Bones were plagued with four errors and struggled to get runs home, leaving one man on base in the second, third, fourth, fifth innings – and two men on base in the seventh, eighth and tenth.
Devan Ahart, the third batter T-Bones starter Barrett Astin (8-3) faced, hit a stand-up double to right field. The next batter, Chris Jacobs, then singled to nearly the same spot to drive in Ahart for the first run of the game, giving the RedHawks an early 1-0 lead.
In the T-Bones’ half of the first, lead-off batter Ryan Brett hit a double to left field off Fargo starting pitcher D.J. Brown (8-2). Brett advanced to third on a put-out by Mason Davis. That was followed by a Todd Cunningham sacrifice fly RBI that brought in Brett and tied it up 1-1.
The RedHawks re-gained the lead in the top of the third. Astin walked the lead-off batter, Tim Colwell, then Brennan Metzger followed with a line drive single to center field over the head of the second baseman.
Fargo’s Chris Jacobs singled with an infield hit, the T-Bones attempted to get a force out at second but that was too late, then the second baseman Brett tried to throw the batter out at first but threw wide for an error, allowing Colwell to score and make the score 2-1 RedHawks.
Fargo continued their assault in the fourth inning as Yhoxian Medina hit into a fielder’s choice, landing on first. He moved to second on a single by Tim Colwell, then scored on an RBI single by Brennan Metzger, which increased the RedHawks lead 3-1.
In the bottom of the sixth, Todd Cunningham walked and Colin Walsh was hit by a pitch. RedHawks relief pitchers followed with back-to-back strikeouts, but then Keith Curcio came to the plate. With his parents and sister in the stands visiting from Florida, Curcio smashed his tenth home run of the season over the right field fence and more than halfway up the grass berm. The two-run home run gave the T-Bones the lead 4-3.
Kansas City was two outs away from a win when Cody Winiarski took the mound in relief. He walked the first batter of the inning, Devan Ahart. Chris Jacobs followed with a fly ball to Keith Curcio in left field, who got caught in between deciding whether to dive or step back and play it as a single. The error allowed Ahart to score and even up the game at 4-4.
In the top of the 10th, Leobaldo Pina singled to right field and moved to second on a put-out. Pina later raced for third on a wild pitch to Yhoxian Medina. The catcher attempted to throw Pina out, but overthrew third base, which allowed Medina to score the go-ahead run and make the score 5-4.
The T-Bones were able to rally in the bottom of the 10th and Fargo defeated KC 5-4.
Astin pitched five innings, giving up three runs on nine hits with five strikeouts and only one walk. Marcus Crescentini, Cody Winiarski, Joe Filomeno and Nick Lee worked in relief. Lee is credited with the loss, giving up one run on one hit in the tenth. Benji Waite is credited with the win for Fargo.
The second game of the doubleheader was a much faster game than the first. In seven innings, Fargo defeated Kansas City 3-0.
The RedHawks started off early as lead-off batter Tim Colwell singled to left, advanced to second on a single by Brennan Metzger and went on to third on a sacrifice bunt by Devan Ahart. Chris Jacobs then brought Colwell home with a sacrifice fly to left field, making the score 1-0 Fargo.
The fourth inning saw the RedHawks add two more runs to the board. T-Bones starter Hunter Adkins walked Leobaldo Pina, who then worked his way to second on a single by Derrick Fox. A follow-up double by RedHawks’ catcher Quinn Irey scored Pina for Fargo’s second run of the game. A single by the next batter, Yhoxian Medina, brought in Fox to give Fargo a 3-0 lead.
And in the end, the T-Bones weren’t able to put anything on the board in the second game, losing 3-0 to the RedHawks.
The T-Bones take on Fargo for the final game of the three-game series Thursday at 7:05 p.m. at T-Bones Stadium. Kansas City will continue their homestand when they take on the Cleburne Railroaders for a three-game series that begins Friday evening.
Season, group tickets, mini-plans and nightly party suites are on sale now and can be purchased by visiting the box office at T-Bones Stadium. Call the box office at 913-328-5618 or purchase and print at www.tbonesbaseball.com. Box office hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday – Friday and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday.
– Story from T-Bones
