Bates Dominates in Rubber Match
By Austin Thomas, Sioux City Explorers
SIOUX CITY, IOWA – The Sioux City Explorers (13-12) caged the Sioux Falls Canaries (11-15) in a 5-1 victory Thursday night. Now a quarter of the way through the season, the win gives the X’s their first series win since May 19-21 against Kane County, putting them back above .500. The Canaries, after losing two in a row, now fall behind the Winnipeg Goldeyes in the West Division standings.
Sioux City starter Solomon Bates (3-2) showed off his power, maintaining a perfect game through three innings and striking out seven batters over that stretch. The Canaries were anchored by Mitchell Walters (0-1) to start the game, who saw eight up, eight down before working out of a bases-loaded jam with a strikeout on the X’s Vince Fernandez.
Sioux Falls scored the first run of the game in the fourth, finally getting to Bates with an RBI double from Welington Dotel after a leadoff walk from Darnell Sweeney. Neither team scored again until the sixth inning when the X’s stepped up to the plate. The Explorers found their first run on a sac fly from Kyle Kasser off DJ Sharabi before Wilfredo Gimenez knocked an RBI single and a wild pitch sent home Chase Harris to make it 3-1 in favor of the X’s.
Bates remained on the mound for the X’s in the seventh, allowing a two-out triple but finishing the inning to maintain the lead. The X’s snagged two more runs in the bottom of the seventh with Tyler Rando sending home Matt Lloyd on an RBI single before Vince Fernandez scored on another wild pitch to make it 5-1 Sioux City. In the eighth inning, Kent Hasler relieved Bates who had a season-high 11-strikeout performance. Hasler threw two scoreless frames as the Explorers rolled to victory and took the Siouxland Series at home 5-1.
The Explorers hit the road for a three game weekend series against the Milwaukee Milkmen beginning Friday night June 9 at 6:35 p.m. Tickets for the season can be purchased online at XSBaseball.com, in person at the Lewis and Clark Park Box Office or by calling 712-277-WINS. You can catch all the X’s action on aabaseball.tv and on radio at KSCJ 94.9 FM and 1360 AM.