Kansas City was plagued by a pair of four-run innings from the St. Paul offense Saturday night. On Sunday, a four-run second inning and a three-run fourth sealed the three-game series sweep for the Saints at CHS Field.
It started early when former T-Bone Zach Walters, who homered Saturday night, smacked the ball deep into right field in the bottom of the second. It bounced off the scoreboard and allowed Walters a stand-up double.
Next batter up, Dante Bichette Jr. bunted to the third-base side to reach first and put runners at the corners with no outs. Starting pitcher Lucas Irvine then grazed Nathaniel Maggio to load the bases.
Justin O’Conner, who hit a three-run home run earlier in this series, then dropped the ball into left center, allowing Walters and Bichette Jr. to score and make the score 2-0 St. Paul.
A sacrifice bunt by Phillips moved up the runners to scoring position. Still with no outs, Max Murphy lined a sacrifice to the shortstop to score Maggio. Kyle Barrett then singled with a right field hit, bringing home O’Conner and giving St. Paul a four-run lead.
In the fourth, a Noah Perio Jr. RBI single to right field brought home Todd Cunningham, who had reached on a center field single, then stole second.
However, one step forward was met with three steps back as the Saints pushed in three runs in the bottom of the fourth. Max Murphy crushed a two-run home run off Irvine over the left-center field fence.
An RBI double to right field by former T-Bone Zach Walters then scored Kyle Barrett, who had reached on a single earlier in the inning. Kansas City went into the fifth inning trailing 7-1.
In the top of the fifth, Alay Lago reached on a single and was pushed forward by a double from Logan Moon. Next batter, Tucker Pennell then hit a sacrifice fly to bring home Lago and make the score 7-2 Saints.
St. Paul added insurance runs in the bottom of the fifth with a two-run RBI single to center field by Max Murphy, which scored Nathaniel Maggio and Justin O’Conner to make the score 9-2. In the end, Murphy drove in five RBIs for the Saints Sunday.
The T-Bones tried one more time in the top of the eighth to rally, with a second RBI of the game from Perio Jr. as a single from him to right field that again drove in Cunningham. But that would be the end of it, with the final score 9-3 St. Paul.
Lucas Irvine (5-3) pitched 4 1/3 innings for Kansas City and got the loss. Chris Nunn (4-2) is responsible for the win.
The T-Bones saw strong relief pitching from rookie Adam Bleday who worked two and two-thirds innings, retiring all 10 batters he faced, and striking out half of them. Jackson Lowery pitched one inning, giving up two hits.
Kansas City (46-26) is 1-6 against the Saints (41-32) this year. The T-Bones begin a three-game homestand against the Texas Airhogs (19-52) Monday at 7:05 p.m. in Kansas City, Kansas.
On Monday night, the first 1,000 kids 12 and younger will receive a voucher good for a free hot dog, bag of chips and lemonade.
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