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T-Bones rally in the ninth inning to win, 2-1

The Kansas City T-Bones waited until the last inning Saturday night to ruin the Sioux City Explorers party at Mercy Field at Lewis and Clark Park in Iowa.

Facing a 1-0 deficit, the T-Bones got their first pinch-hit RBI of the season when Adrian Nieto came off the bench to single, bringing the tying run home in the form of Alay Lago.

Two batters later Mason Davis drove a double to the left field corner off X’s closer Eric Karch to drive in the go-ahead run.

Cody Winiarski got a 1-2-3 save facing the top of the order to notch the win and end a five-game road losing streak.

The rest of the game saw two solid pitching efforts with Lefty Ian McKinney for Sioux City and right-handed pitcher Tommy Collier of KC, dealing zeros across the board.

Collier retired the X’s in order in the second, third, fifth and sixth innings. He went on to hold Sioux City to four hits with four strikeouts. McKinney worked around four walks but added six strikeouts before he left the game in the eighth.

In the seventh Sioux City got their first hit since the fourth when Jose Sermo hit a solo home run to right for a 1-0 lead.

That ended a streak of 10 straight batters retired by Collier. KC threatened in the top of the eighth, eventually chasing McKinney on a single and a walk. With two outs Patrick Schuster got the final out to end the T-Bones chance.

That set up the dramatic ninth inning. Lago reached base on a dropped fly ball in center by Luis Durango.

Lago made a heads-up move, racing to second for KC. After a Keith Curcio pop out to short, Logan Moon reached on an infield single to put runners at the corners. From there, Nieto and Davis did their thing to drive in the two unearned runs.

The T-Bones won their 50th game of the season and increased their lead in the wild card race to two games over Wichita, which lost Saturday night at Cleburne.

Collier (9-3) got the win while Karch (2-2) was charged with the loss. Winiarski picked up his ninth save.

Kansas City (50-28) and Sioux City (58-21) will wrap up the four-game series at 6:05 p.m. Sunday in Sioux City, Iowa. The game be heard on the T-Bones Broadcast Network at http://mixlr.com/t-bones-baseball/.

The T-Bones will return home to T-Bones Stadium at 7:05 p.m. Tuesday, opening a six-game homestand against the Fargo-Morehead RedHawks.

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

T-Bones lose close game in extra innings

The Kansas City T-Bones (49-28) fought hard but failed to complete the comeback, losing 3-2 in 11 innings on Friday against the Sioux City Explorers (58-20).

The T-Bones rallied from two down in the seventh to send the game to extra innings, but Jay Baum played hero-ball, hitting an RBI single to end Kansas City’s hopes at stealing a game in the South Division.

In the top of the first, the Explorers jumped ahead of Kansas City early, putting together a string of hits to put a run on the board.

Luis Durango reached first on an infield single, and Michael Lang raced down the first base line on another infield hit that advanced Durango to second.

With one out, Jose Sermo sliced a ball to left field, scoring Durango to put the T-Bones on their heels. The Explorers took a 1-0 lead heading into the bottom of the inning.

Fast forward to the sixth inning when the Explorers offense fired back up with two outs. Sermo drilled a single to right field to put a runner on first. Jay Baum advanced Sermo on a screamer to center field to put two runners aboard.

With two runners on, Blake Schmit stepped to the plate. During his at-bat, Sioux City executed a double steal perfectly, as both Sermo and Baum advanced to second and third base. A throwing error by the
T-Bones catcher Adrian Nieto sent Sermo speeding down the third base line to score an unearned run. After six, the Explorers had a 2-0 advantage on Kansas City.

A key error in the seventh gave the T-Bones life. After struggling to string together hits, Kansas City played like the division title depended on it.

Mason Davis started the inning with a much-needed single to spark the T-Bones offense. Davis was doing it all by stealing second to put Kansas City in scoring position. Todd Cunningham had a nice at-bat and forced a walk to put two runners on. A crucial error by Sioux City short stop Nate Samson allowed Colin Walsh to reach first on a dribbler to load the bases.

Noah Perio Jr. did his job for the T-Bones and knocked a ball to center field, scoring Mason and Cunningham to tie the game at two apiece.

After nine exciting innings of baseball, the best two teams in the American Association played free baseball. After a thrilling 11 innings, the Explorers had enough. Durango singled to left field to advance to first. Lang followed Durango with another single to put two runners on with no outs. After an intentional walk to Sermo, the bases were loaded for Baum who delivered a RBI single to left field to score Durango from third to win the game 3-2 over Kansas City.

Wirkin Estevez (0-0) had a solid night, pitching six innings and giving up nine hits and two runs. Only one run was earned. Estevez was credited with the no decision. Nick Lee (1-1) was credited with the loss, pitching 1.1 innings and allowing four hits and one earned run.

Parker Markel (1-1) pitched well for Sioux City in relief, pitching two scoreless innings, only allowing one hit. He was credited as the winning pitcher.

With the loss, Kansas City falls to 49-28 on the season and a whopping 8.5 games behind Sioux City.

The T-Bones now set their sights on maintaining the second seed in the South Division over the Wichita Wingnuts (48-29) to secure a playoff berth.

Sioux City improves to a league best 58-20 on the season and are running away with the South Division. They have won two straight games and look to extend their division lead against the T-Bones at 7:05 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 1, in Sioux City. The game be heard on the T-Bones Broadcast Network at http://mixlr.com/t-bones-baseball/.

T-Bones drop series opener, 7-5

A late rally proved to be too little, too late for the Kansas City T-Bones as they opened their series against the division-leading Sioux City Explorers with a 7-5 loss on Thursday night at Mercy Field at Lewis and Clark Park in Sioux City, Iowa.

The Sioux City Explorers came out ready to win after being swept in their last series.

In the first inning the Explorers scored four to race out to the early lead. Nate Samson drove in a pair with an RBI double to make it 2-0. Jose Sermo added a sacrifice fly that was hit so deep to center that Todd Cunningham made a lunging catch, landing on his back and allowing Samson to score from second.

The final run came after a single for Blake Schmidt and a dropped third strike on Dexture McCall. T-Bones catcher Adrian Nieto then threw to first, but the ball got away from Noah Perio Jr., allowing Schmidt to score to make it 4-0.

After an explosive first inning for the X’s, it was a battle of the bullpens for both clubs. Adam Bleday had a bit of a rocky start for the T-Bones but leveled out, getting a total of 72 pitches before being replaced.

Pasquale Mozzaccoli came in for the T-Bones in the bottom of the fourth and struck out one before leaving the mound for Francisco Gracesqui in the bottom of the sixth.

The scoring picked up in the sixth, but unfortunately it was the opposing team getting all the runs.

Gracesqui issued a walk to start the inning to McCall. Dylan Kelly then followed with a single to put runners at first and second. Daniel Jackson squared to bunt on two pitches that sent the count to 0-2 with both pitches being balls. The second pitch was also a wild pitch, moving the runners to second and third. Jackson then swung the bat and hit a three-run home run for Sioux City to make the score 7-0.

Jackson Lowery came in to pitch in the seventh, and in the eighth the T-Bones saw a glimpse of hope.

With no outs and the bases loaded, Mason Davis, returning tonight from a few days off, came up to bat. Mason Davis hit a single to right field, and Alay Lago made it home to break the T-Bones’ scoreless streak.

Still with no outs, the league leader in batting average, Todd Cunningham, stepped up to the plate with the bases loaded once more. He got the walk, and Logan Moon went home to narrow the score gap 7-2. Walsh was up next, and his single to centerfield let two T-Bones make it home to make the score Sioux City 7 – KC 4.

Nieto hit a sacrifice fly to right field, and Todd Cunningham scored with Keith Curcio hitting a single right after. With that, the T-Bones made it all the way through the batting order and Lago came to the plate for the second time in the eighth inning. He was put out for the third out on a fly to center, but KC closed the gap to Sioux City 7– KC 5.

Sioux City threatened again in the bottom of the eighth, but the T-Bones weren’t about to let their five-run inning be outdone. A diving catch from Logan Moon kept the deficit at two, and the T-Bones went back to bat hopeful.

Ryan Brett hit a double to the left, but he was the only T-Bone able to make it on base in the ninth, and the T-Bones ultimately fell to the Sioux City Explorers, 7 – 5.

Kansas City (49–27) and Sioux City (57–20) are set for a rematch as they continue their series at 7:05 p.m. Friday, Aug. 10, in Iowa. The game can be heard on the T-Bones Broadcast Network.