AirHogs Stay Hot Beat Captains
Another game away from QuikTrip Park turned into another win for the Grand Prairie AirHogs, as they broke open a tight game late against the second-place Shreveport-Bossier Captains with a nine-run, 15-batter ninth inning to win 15-2 at Fair Grounds Field, the AirHogs' seventh straight win and their 14th in 17 games on the road.
Grand Prairie (27-10) got their first run on a one-out solo home run by David Thomas in the first inning, a run that was quickly answered by Uriak Marquez's two-out infield single in the bottom of the first. After the AirHogs grabbed the lead back in the top of the second when Danny Figueroa beat out a possible double play, the Captains (19-17) tied things up again in the fifth on a double, sacrifice bunt and groundout by Bryan Sabatella.
But that was all that AirHogs starter Jason Jennings (5-1) would allow, battling through the heat and humidity to go six innings, allowing seven hits and three walks but just the two runs, with five strikeouts. The righty left two men on base in each of the first two innings, had his lone 1-2-3 frame in the third, and then left one on in the fourth and fifth before a major escape job in the sixth, getting Mike Provencher to strike out and Robert Perry to line out to get out of a bases-loaded, one-out jam with the AirHogs leading 5-2.
Jennings finished his six innings of work throwing 84 pitches in the 97-degree weather, with 52 for strikes - stranding nine total runners.
The AirHogs got the lead by chasing Captains ace Ryan DiPietro (6-2) in the sixth, starting with the dreaded leadoff walk to Tyler Henley. After Chris McMurray struck out, Guillermo Martinez lined a two-strike pitch into the left-centerfield gap to score Henley and make it 3-2. Another walk, this time to Danny Figueroa, followed to end DiPietro's night, and reliever Lee Henry allowed two inherited runs on base hits by David Espinosa and Cesar Nicolas to give Grand Prairie the lead for good.
After getting one more run in the seventh on a McMurray double, the AirHogs turned it into a laugher in the ninth, getting all nine runs before there were two outs, highlighted by Greg Porter and Jake Taylor each picking up two hits in the inning.
After Jon Fulton and Jason Moody each pitched a scoreless inning when Jennings departed, rookie Reece Cross made his professional debut in the bottom of the ninth, walking Robert Perry to start, but then striking out Sabatella and getting Andres Rodriguez to fly out, before Marquez singled but Palmer Karr fouled out to end a scoreless inning.
