AirHogs Pick Up First Win
Friday night, the Grand Prairie AirHogs' starting pitcher was excellent and the hitters scored two runs - but the AirHogs lost to the Gary SouthShore RailCats in 11 innings. One night later, Grand Prairie's starter was excellent again, and the AirHogs again scored a pair of runs, but this time they were enough to get a victory for Josh Rainwater, as Grand Prairie snuck by the RailCats 2-1 in front of a Fireworks Saturday crowd of 4,205 at QuikTrip Park.
Once again the AirHogs (1-2) got on the board first, as Kevin Thompson reached on an infield single, moved to second on a bunt by David Thomas, went to third on a bloop single by Cesar Nicolas and scored on Greg Porter's sacrifice fly. Grand Prairie got its second and final run the following inning on an RBI triple to right-center by Guillermo Martinez.
That was more than enough for Rainwater (1-0), who retired the first seven hitters to face him, before giving up lone singles in the third, fifth and sixth innings of his seven-inning, no walk, no-run, five-strikeout performance. No RailCats baserunner made in to third against the Louisianan, and Gary did not have two runners on in any of his seven innings.
But after RailCats starter Nolan Nicholson (0-1) was lifted with two outs in the fifth inning, relievers Will Krout and Jeremy Hauer retired all 10 batters they faced to keep the score close.
Dustin Cameron, working for the third straight day for Grand Prairie, worked around a two-out single in the eighth, and turned the ball over to closer Jon Hunton. The big righty got the first out, but gave up a one-out single and a wild pitch before striking out Cristian Guerrero for the second out. The RailCats (2-1) did not go quietly though, as Toddric Johnson and Kyle Haines both singled to knock in a run and put the potential tying run at third. Mike Valadez then bounced a ball up the middle, but the 6-foot-9 Hunton was able to jump up and snare it, before tossing to first to pick up his first save of the year in the AirHogs first win of 2011.
