Sioux Falls, SD – After a frustrating loss the previous night, the X’s got right back to the ballpark and righted the wrongs from game one of the series. Sioux City used a fantastic start from Pete Tago who punched out twelve over seven innings and Adam Sasser had his first professional multi homer game to lead the X’s to a 12-5 win.

Both teams traded runs in the first couple of innings, Nate Samson drove home the first run of the game for the X’s. The Canaries responded in the first with an RBI ground out from Clint Coulter. The X’s drove in a run in the second as Dexture McCall doubled and came around to score on a Dylan Kelly sacrifice fly to center. Sioux Falls responded with a pair of infield singles in the second to tie the game 2-2.

Adam Sasser broke the tie in the fourth with a two run homer, his second of the season over the right field fence to make it 4-2 Sioux City.

From there Pete Tago (3-2) kept the Explorers in the lead. He tossed seven innings allowing two runs on five hits while walking two. He tied his season high in strikeouts with 12 and struck out the last five batters that he faced.

Tago was able to out duel Alex Boshers (5-6) who went seven innings allowing four runs on eight hits, he didn’t walk any batters while striking out a season high eight.

The Canaries struck back in the eighth to make it a close ball game. Kevin Taylor collected his fourth hit of the ball game to keep the eighth inning alive for the Birds. That allowed Clint Coulter to go the opposite way for his second home run in as many games with two outs in the eighth. The two run blast made it a one run ball game with the X’s on top 5-4.

Adam Sasser began a giant ninth inning rally with his second home run of the ball game. It was Sasser’s first multi homer game of his professional career. Two outs later it was Kyle Wren who smashed one over the right field wall to put the X’s up 7-4, it was Wren’s eighth homer of the year.

The inning then unraveled for the Canaries. With a runner at first Jeremy Hazelbaker hit a ball right into the shift but the grounder was bobbled for an error which extended the inning and turned the game into a blowout. Jose Sermo was hit by a pitch to load the bases and Drew Stankiewicz drove home a pair with a base hit. McCall did the same with his second double of the game, fourth of the series. And Adam Sasser finished off the rally that he started with a double driving home McCall to make it 12-4 X’s.

Sasser finished his big day with four hits, a pair of homers, a double, four RBI’s and two runs scored.

Sioux Falls added a run in the ninth off of Matt Pobereyko as Graham Low drove home Burt Reynolds with a sacrifice fly to give the game it’s final score of 12-5.

Sioux City now has a day off on Wednesday before taking on the Cleburne Railroaders on Thursday night at 7:06 pm for the start of yet another important three game series with the Railroaders.

Boxscore

By Connor Ryan