AirHogs Score Late to Win
In an old-fashioned pitcher's duel, Jason Jennings battled through eight innings, while Wade Mackey was often overpowering through 7 1/3. But Jennings, who threw eight fewer pitches despite allowing three more baserunners and getting two more outs than his fellow Baylor grad, held the Fort Worth Cats to one run, while Mackey was charged with two as the Grand Prairie AirHogs came from behind to take a 3-1 win in front of 1,776 fans at QuikTrip Park on Friday.
After escaping a bases-loaded jam in the first, Jennings (6-1) pitched a three-batter second before running into more trouble in the third. Brian Fryer hit the first pitch of the inning for a double, and back-to-back infield hits by Jeremy Sauceda and Kelley Gulledge gave the Cats (20-26) the lead.
Jennings stranded six more baserunners with only one 1-2-3 inning, but was helped by 10 Cats swinging at the first pitch, making seven outs (one was a double play) against four hits. He finished with eight hits and two walks, but only one run allowed with four strikeouts.
However, it looked like Mackey (4-2) might make the one run stand up. He got out of two-runner james in the first, second and fourth innings, but then retired 11 of 12, including one stretch of four straight strikeouts to the 3-through-6 hitters in the Grand Prairie lineup.
But with one out in the bottom of the seventh, Guillermo Martinez beat out his second hustle double of the game, putting himself in scoring position as the potential tying run. Cesar Nicolas then made the potential a reality, with a base hit to score Martinez and tie the game, knocking out Mackey, who allowed five hits, two runs and three walks with seven strikeouts. Lefty Cody White got lefty-hitting Greg Porter to pop out for the second out, but after pitching around righty-swinging John Alonso to get to lefty Tyler Henley, White instead got to face pinch-hitter Chris McMurray, a righthanded hitter.
McMurray broke his bat on the first pitch, but got enough to send a liner to left for a single, with Nicolas racing around from second to score the eventual winning run. Zane Chavez added an insurance run a batter later with a single, and Jon Hunton overpowered the Cats in the ninth with two strikeouts and a groundout to get his 13th save and give Grand Prairie (32-15) a good start to the holiday weekend.
The AirHogs and Cats shift to LaGrave Field in Fort Worth for the second game of their four-game series on Saturday.
