Bolden and strong pitching lead Sioux Falls past T-Bones

A fourth of July crowd of 6,817 saw the Sioux Falls Pheasants tally 13 hits, including a four-hit game from Jared Bolden, and beat the T-Bones, 7-2.

Bolden collected a single, two doubles and a triple, just falling short of the cycle by a home run. He got his fourth hit of the night, a double, in the ninth.

Bolden’s four hits were just two fewer than the T-Bones’ final tally of six for the game. Sioux Falls starter Pete Gehle (4-3) kept the Kansas City batters on their heels during most of his seven innings, giving up only five hits and two runs (one earned).

“I don’t know that it was so much what he did as much as we just couldn’t get things going offensively,” said T-Bones manager Kenny Hook. “He was doing a good job of locating the ball, especially on the outside of the plate to right-handed hitters, but our guys got anxious and tried to pull everything. As a result, they grounded out several times.”

Kansas City took a 1-0 lead in the second inning when Hunter Mense launched a sacrifice fly to dead center with the bases loaded, and scored Trevor Coleman. Sioux Falls, however, added five runs during the third and fourth innings.

Two of their three runs in the fourth came from a throwing error by T-Bones third baseman Enrique Cruz. Then, Bolden socked an RBI triple deep to the gap in left-center field.

After Kansas City starter Josh Rainwater (3-4) was ejected after the fourth for arguing balls and strikes, reliever Dan Kickham provided a boost out of the bullpen.

Kickham logged four innings of work, only allowing one hit while striking out five.