ST. PAUL, MN (August 28, 2020) – A night after the St. Paul Saints hung two touchdowns and two extra points on the Sioux Falls Canaries, the Canaries repaid the favor. On Friday night at CHS Field in front of a sellout crowd of 1,500, the Canaries missed their two extra points, but downed the Saints 12-4. The loss sends the Saints to 25-24 and they are now 0.5 game out of a playoff spot behind the Canaries with 11 games to go.

While the Saints put up 11 runs in one inning on Thursday, the Canaries scored in five of the nine innings, including putting up a crooked number four times. They came out of the gate in the first and put up three runs while getting just one hit. Saints starter Ryan Zimmerman walked the leadoff hitter Logan Landon, hit Andrew Ely and walked Clint Coulter to load the bases. After a strikeout of Damek Tomscha, Zimmerman looked like he might get out of the inning when Alay Lago hit a ground ball to short. Nate Samson fed Drew Stankiewicz at second for the second out, but the relay throw to first was just a tad late as Landon scored making it 1-0. Jabari Henry walked and Roy Morales, who went 4-4 with four RBI on the night, singled home two giving the Canaries a 3-0 lead.

The Saints fought back and got to within one in the third as they loaded the bases on singles by Stankiewicz and Mikey Reynolds and a walk to Alonzo Harris. A sacrifice fly by Max Murphy and an RBI single from Chris Chinea made it 3-2.

Each time the Saints scored, however, the Canaries answered. They put up two of their own in the fourth on a solo homer by Morales, his second of the season, and an RBI single from Coulter making it 5-2. Zimmerman lasted just 4.0 innings allowing five runs on five hits while walking four and striking out four.

The Saints once again got to within one in the bottom of the fourth as Mitch Ghelfi doubled with one out. Stankiewicz singled him to third. An RBI single by Mikey Reynolds made it 5-3 and with two outs Murphy made it 5-4 with an RBI single to left-center. The base hit by Murphy extended his hitting streak to 10 games. Reynolds, who had a four-hit night on Thursday, went 3-4 with an RBI and a run scored.

The Canaries would score seven unanswered after that getting two in the fifth as Lago led off with a single and Henry doubled him to third. Morales drove in a run with a single and an RBI fielder’s choice from Mike Hart made it 7-4.

The Canaries put it away with four in the eighth when Grant Kay led off with a single and, with one out, Ely singled him to second. Tomscha made it 9-4 with a two-run double and that was followed by a two-run homer from Lago, his third of the season, increasing the Canaries lead to 11-4.

The Canaries final run came off of the Saints second baseman, Stankiewicz, who pitched for the second time this season. Three straight singles opened the inning, but Stankiewicz turned a nifty double play on a comebacker. With runners at second and third, a wild pitch scored a run to finish the scoring.

The same two teams meet in game two of the three game series on Saturday night at CHS Field at 7:05 p.m. The Saints send LHP Chris Nunn (0-1, 15.00) to the mound against Canaries LHP Ty Culbreth (2-2, 6.75). The game can be seen on the Saints Cable Network, cable access channels in and around the Twin Cities, streamed at aabaseball.tv, and heard on KFAN Plus, 96.7 FM.

Boxscore

by Sean Aronson, St. Paul Saints