Monday, July 02, 2012

Lead extended to nine games over Sox, Lemurs

GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas – The Grand Prairie AirHogs scored all eight of their runs Monday between the second and fifth innings and cruised to an 8-1 win over the Amarillo Sox, completing a four-game sweep at QuikTrip Park to take a nine-game lead over both the Sox and Laredo Lemurs in the American Association’s South Division.

After Phil Bartleski (0-3) put the AirHogs (30-13) down in order in the first on just 10 pitches, he got Andres Rodriguez to fly to left-center to start the bottom of the second. But Greg Porter singled at the end of a nine-pitch at-bat, and Trent Lockwood crushed a home run to right to give Grand Prairie the lead.

David Thomas re-started things with a single, and Zane Chavez followed that with another base hit to put runners at the corners. Yasutsugu Nishimoto then had an RBI groundout to make it 3-0.

Rodriguez hit a one-out double in the fourth and scored after hits by Porter and Lockwood to give Grand Prairie a four-run lead, which got bigger next inning after Nishimoto’s leadoff double and a single and a sacrifice fly by Keanon Simon and Bryan Frichter, respectively. That brought up Brian Myrow, who hit a home run to right to make it 7-0 and chase Bartleski after just 3 1/3 innings.

The Sox bullpen held the AirHogs to one unearned run the rest of the way, but the damage was done.

Lance Day (2-0) went a career-high seven innings to get the win, allowing a run in his last inning of work along with six hits and no walks while striking out four. Jakob Cunningham and Ronnie Morales each worked a scoreless inning to finish off the AirHogs’ 13^th straight home win.

Notes: Eight of the nine AirHogs had at least one hit and all eight runs were scored by those eight different players…Amarillo’s Tim Alberts, who was the league’s leading hitter coming into the series, was held to one hit in 13 at-bats in the series and his average dropped to .393 from .419 coming into the series…The AirHogs traded lefty pitcher Teddy Nowell to Abilene (North American League) to make room for Tuesday’s starting pitcher, righty Ramon Garcia, who will be signed before the game.

The 2011 American Association Champion Grand Prairie AirHogs now face the Central Division-leading Wichita Wingnuts for a four-game series starting on Tuesday, July 3, at 6:05 p.m (PLEASE NOTE THE EARLIER START TIME). All fans in attendance can use their ticket to the Pat Green concert at Lone Star Park. All games are aired live and for free on Ustream by clicking on the link on the AirHogs’ home page or visiting http://www.ustream.tv/channel/airhogs-baseball with selected contests aired on Time Warner Cable’s Texas Channel. For information on tickets, promotions, advertising, and other opportunities with the AirHogs, check out the Web site at www.airhogsbaseball.com, or call the QuikTrip Park office at (972) 504-9383.