The Wichita Wingnuts have had some great pitching performances where the team did not hit, and some great hitting performances where the team did not pitch. Sunday afternoon, they finally put it all together as the Wingnuts battered the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks 14-4 behind 14-runs and 16-hits from their lineup. Harrison Kain led the way with 4-hits and 4-RBI, and starter Jon Link rebounded from two tough starts to begin the season, tossing seven outstanding innings for his first win of the season.

Link was opposed by Tyler Alexander, and both pitchers kept it a scoreless tie through the first three innings, but the fourth inning had a whole lot of fireworks to it. Zach Cox got it rolling when he singled for Wichita to start the inning. Brent Clevlen then grounded into a double-play, and it looked like this was going to be another scoreless inning for Alexander, but the Wingnuts put up a two-out rally for the ages. T.J. Mittelstaedt singled and Dustin Geiger walked. Next up was Richard Prigatano, who lined a base hit that scored Mittelstaedt, and it was 1-0. Geiger moved to third on the play and Prigatano to second. That brought Kain to the plate, who singled to score both runners and it was 3-0. A Brent Dean double scored Kain all the way from first and Dean scored when Leo Vargas singled. That gave the team five two-out hits that led them to a 5-0 lead.

Link looked incredibly sharp through the first three innings, with the only base runner being Keury De La Cruz who reached on an error in the first. The big right-hander had struck out three, and looked really good. He would only make one mistake and that came in the bottom of the fourth.

The Wingnuts starter struck out the first hitter of the inning, then De La Cruz doubled. He would be caught trying to steal third, and the RedHawks would be looking for a two-out rally of their own. Josh Mazzola drew a walk and Brian Humphries singled to put runners at first and second. That brought Luke Bailey to the plate, who ripped a three-run homerun to pull Fargo-Moorhead within two-runs. That was Bailey’s third homer of the season.

In the top of the sixth, Wichita plated another run. Kain singled with one out and moved to second when Dean singled. Vargas was hit by a pitch, and Cox’s bases loaded free pass made it 6-3.

This was still a close game, but in the top of the eighth the Wichita Wingnuts ended any hopes that the RedHawks had. Kain singled to get it started and scored when Vargas doubled two batters later. A walk to Stringer put two on with one out, and Clevlen loaded the bases when he was hit by a pitch two batters later. With the score 7-3, Mittelstaedt drew a walk to drive in the eighth run of the game and Geiger was hit by a pitch to score another run. The Wingnuts were moving station to station, which continued when Prigatano singled to score Clevlen and Kain was hit by a pitch, the third batter to be hit in the inning. That scored Mittelstaedt to make it 11-3.

In the ninth, Wichita added three more runs. Back-to-back walks to Stringer and Cox with one out got the rally rolling, and Clevlen drove home Stringer with a double. A Mittelstaedt walk loaded the bases and Geiger would drive in a run with a walk. The final run scored on a single by Kain.

Kain finished the game 4-5 with 3-runs and 4-RBI. That raised his average to .424, third best in the American Association.

Fargo-Moorhead added one more run in the bottom of the ninth to close out the scoring. K.D. Kang hit is his first homerun of the season to make it 14-4.

Link (1-2) pitched extremely well. The big right-hander went 7-innings, allowing 5-hits and a walk, while striking out 7.

Every Wichita Wingnuts starter had at least one hit, except Geiger, who still walked twice, score a run and drove in two. Vargas was 3-4 with a run and 2-RBI, and Clevlen and Prigatano each had two hits.

Fargo-Moorhead got two hits from De La Cruz and Kang.

The Wichita Wingnuts head home to play a three-game series against the Laredo Lemurs starting tomorrow. Monday’s game will start at 7:05.

Boxscore

By Robert Pannier