SUNDAY: WICHITA, Kan.- Taylor Freeman took a walk-off walk in the bottom of the 10th inning as Wichita outlasted Kansas City, 6-5, in a four hour and two minute marathon at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium on Sunday.
Leading 4-3 going into the bottom of the seventh, Wichita tacked on one run on a sacrifice fly by Ryan Khoury that scored Mike Conroy. Trailing 5-3 in the top of the eighth, Kansas City fought back against Wichita hard-throwing right-hander Edgar Martinez.
Martinez walked three T-Bones in the frame and gave up two runs on two hits and a Wingnuts error. With Justin Bass on first and Bubby Williams on second, Brandon Jones blooped a single to left to drive home Williams.
Left fielder Mike Conroy misplayed the ball, allowing Bass to score all the way from first as the T-Bones knotted the ballgame at 5-5. KC then had the bases loaded with only one out later in the frame but couldn’t push another run across, as Martinez struck out Devin Goodwin looking and retired Reid Fronk on a popup to short.
The Wingnuts loaded the bases with no outs in the bottom of the eighth but did not score. Kansas City forced out Juan Richardson at the plate for the first out.
Wingnuts catcher Taylor Freeman popped out to pitcher Jake Wiley on a suicide squeeze attempt for out No. 2, and Conroy fouled out to Goodwin at third base for the final out.
The score remained tied until the bottom of the 10th. With the bases loaded and one out, Freeman took a bases loaded walk to win the game.
Wiley (1-3) took the loss, allowing one earned run in two innings of work. The right-hander walked four. Wichita right-hander Matt Nevarez (3-1) earned the win, pitching two innings of scoreless baseball.
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SATURDAY: Six different T-Bones pitchers combined for a total of twelve walks, and the KC infield committed three errors as Wichita evened the series 1-1 with a 9-4 win at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium on Saturday night.
The bottom of the second inning proved to be eventful. Wichita pushed three runs across on one hit and two T-Bones errors to seize an early 3-0 lead. Both errors were charged to infielders, and starting pitcher Devin Anderson and catcher Trevor Coleman were thrown out of the game by the home plate umpire for arguing a call on a play at the plate. C.J. Ziegler was ruled safe on a close play as shortstop Jose Duran threw home to Coleman. Due to the two ejections, Kansas City placed Bubby Williams behind the plate and sent right-hander Dan Kickham to the mound.
The T-Bones narrowed the lead to 3-2 in the third as Williams immediately made his mark with a two-out, two-run ground rule double to center, scoring Justin Bass and Brandon Jones. The liner over Mitch Einertson’s head in center would have cleared the bases and tied the game, but it bounced over the center field fence on one hop and Ray Sadler was ordered to go back to third. He ended up stranded there as Kala Ka’aihue struck out to end the inning.
Wichita tacked on one more run in the bottom of the third on a Ziegler home run, his eighth of the season and fifth against Kansas City in five games this year. The Wingnuts scored one in the fourth, two more in the sixth, and two in the eighth to extend the lead to 9-3. Kansas City scored once in the ninth on an RBI double by Brandon Jones to left.
Along with Coleman and Anderson, left-hander Steve Kent was also ejected by the home plate umpire. He was thrown out in the eighth inning for arguing balls and strikes.
Wingnuts starter Josh Lowey (5-0; 4.15) earned the win, going 5 1/3 innings, giving up three earned runs on six hits while walking three and striking out six. Anderson (1-3; 4.55) took the loss for KC, allowing three runs, none earned, on two hits and one walk in one inning of work.
