By MATT FULKS, tbonesbaseball.com
KANSAS CITY, KAN. – The Wingnuts scored three early runs and a huge run late, and beat Kansas City 4-3 Thursday night at Lawrence Dumont Stadium in the Kansas Turnpike Showdown.
The T-Bones scored first on a Danny Richar double that brought around David Espinosa from first. But the Wingnuts countered with two runs off three doubles in the bottom of the first inning off of Kansas City starter Andy Noga to take a 2-1 lead.
Noga would then settle down finishing the game with five innings and just two earned runs on six hits.
The T-Bones battled back and tied the game at 3-3 with single runs in the fourth and sixth innings, but the Wingnuts got a clutch two-out RBI single from Chris McClendon against Kansas City reliever Kyle DeVore (0-1), who came off the disabled list and made his T-Bones debut.
The T-Bones would make things interesting in the ninth inning, however, getting an infield single from Bryan Sabatella off of closer Matt Nevarez (9) with one out.
Sabatella was thrown out at second, though, trying to steal with David Espinosa at the plate. Espinosa, who had three of Kansas City’s 11 hits, including two doubles, then struck out and ended a comeback attempt.
The T-Bones drop the season series to Wichita, 6-4. The two teams won’t face each other again in the regular season.
The T-Bones (13-14) begin a three-game series at Laredo on Friday night. First pitch is scheduled for 7:30.
