A night after watching a 3-0 lead in the seventh vaporize, falling to the Texas AirHogs 4-3, the Wichita Wingnuts got five solid innings from Eddie Medina and Richard Prigatano drove home two to lead the Wingnuts to the 4-2 victory. Matt Chavez scored 2-runs, and Mike Devine earned his second save of the season in the victory.

After a scoreless first, Wichita would take the lead against T.J. Bozeman in the second. With one down, Matt Chavez walked and Zac Fisher followed with a base hit that moved Chavez to second. Richard Prigatano grounded down to third moving both runners into scoring position and Chavez scored on a wild pitch.

Eddie Medina had gotten into some trouble early for the Wingnuts. With two down in the first, Levi Scott struck out, but he reached on a wild pitch and Denis Phipps followed by drawing a walk. However, Medina got Jake Taylor to ground out to end the threat. In the second he loaded the bases on walks with one down, but got a pop out before striking out Casio Grider to end the threat.

Following a 1-2-3 third, Texas tied the score in the fourth. Charley Thurber hit a double down in the right field corner with one down and scored on a base hit by Trevor Sealey. That made the game 1-1.

The Wingnuts responded right away in the bottom half of the inning to retake the lead. T.J. Mittelstaedt walked with one down and moved to second on a base hit by Chavez. Fisher then walked before Prigatano delivered a clutch two-out single to right-center that scored both Mittelstatedt and Chavez to make it 3-1.

In the sixth, the Wichita Wingnuts added an insurance run. Prigatano doubled with one out before Brennen Salgado walked. With Leo Vargas at the plate, both runners went on the double steal. Wagner opted to try to gun Salgado down, but he was safe and the ball got away. Prigatano scored on the error and it was 4-1.

In the seventh, Texas got one of those runs back. Grider led off the inning by drilling his first home run of the season over the left field wall to make it 4-2.

Eddie Medina (4-1) came out after 5-innings. He allowed 4-hits and 3-walks with only one-run scoring. He also stuck out 6. Garrett Gould relieved and tossed 2-innings, allowing the Grider homer. Austin Boyle pitched a perfect eighth, striking out two, and Mike Devine struck out two in the ninth to earn his second save of the season.

Richard Prigatano finished the evening 2-4 with a run and 2-RBI. Matt Chavez had a base hit and scored 2-runs. The AirHogs were led by Casio Grider, who had 2-hits in 5-trips to the plate, scored a run and drove in one.

These two teams will conclude their four-game series tomorrow. Jordan Cooper (3-0, 1.60) looks to remain undefeated. He will be opposed by LHP Michael Freeman (1-1, 3.14). First pitch is scheduled for 7:05.

Boxscore

Featured Image by Ed Bailey

By Robert Pannier