The Hogs went a bit wild in Kansas City Tuesday evening, but in the end the T-Bones took the piggies to market, defeating the Texas AirHogs 6-4.
KC led the ball game by three runs early in the game and had to battle back to put the pigs back in their pen.
Kansas City grabbed three runs on three hits in the bottom of the first.
T-Bone newcomer Ryan Brett started with a walk from AirHogs starting pitcher Cody White. Colin Walsh singled and Noah Perio Jr then cracked a ground ball down the right field line past the first baseman to score Brett for the first run of the game.
The next batter, Adrian Nieto dropped a ball into left field, sending both Walsh and Cunningham racing for home and scoring another two runs, giving the T-Bones a 3-0 lead.
In the top of the second, Han Xiao singled down the middle, later went on to steal second and then scored on an RBI single by Greg Golson to make the score 3-1.
Keith Curcio, in his first at-bat in the bottom of the second, slammed his ninth home run and 43rd RBI of the season halfway up the grass berm outside the right field fence.
In the top of the third, Stewart Ijames reached on an error by the second baseman, followed by back-to-back singles from Casio Grider and Dillon Thomas to load the bases.
Thomas’ single hit T-Bones starting pitcher Barrett Astin in the lower body, causing him to be relieved by RHP Pasquale Mazzaccoli.
Han Xiao racked up his second and third RBIs of the game when he lined down the middle, in a similar spot to where he hit the ball the previous inning, to score Ijames and Grider and put runners at the corners. Mazzacolli prevented any more runs from scoring, striking out center fielder Greg Golson.
The Hogs got happy in the fourth, with back-to-back singles from Jesse Baker and Liang Pei, followed by a fielder’s choice and a Casio Grider double down the left-field line that allowed Texas to tie the game 4-4.
Texas didn’t hog tie Kansas City for long though. On a two-two pitch with no outs in the sixth, Colin Walsh hit a long ball over the right field fence to let the T-Bones re-gain the lead 5-4.
KC made the lead a bit more solid in the bottom of the seventh.
With two outs, Colin Walsh hit a ground ball to shortstop Casio Grider, who bobbled it for an error and allowed Logan Moon, to score. Moon had reached on a walk, advanced on a walk to Todd Cunningham and moved to third when Cunningham flied out.
In addition to Pasquale Mazzoccoli, Jackson Lowery, Kevin Hill, Marcus Crescentini and Cody Winiarski worked in relief of KC starter Barrett Astin. Combined, T-Bones pitchers fanned a total of 10 AirHogs batters.
Jackson Lowery (3-1) gets the win for KC and Cody White (0-1) is charged with the loss. Cody Winiarski (1-1) racked up his eighth save of the season.
The T-Bones, now 48-26 on the season, look to sweep the three-game homestand against the AirHogs (19-55) Wednesday evening at 7:05 p.m.
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
