Sunday, July 08, 2012

Grand Prairie loses 5-0 in Laredo

LAREDO, Texas – The Grand Prairie AirHogs had been shut out only twice in the first 48 games of the season, but one of those came on a start by Matt Way on May 19 in Laredo. On this Sunday night it happened again, but this time Way threw nine scoreless innings to finish the AirHogs off himself, as the Lemurs beat the AirHogs 5-0 at Uni-Trade Stadium, ending the AirHogs’ franchise-best winning streak at 11.

Javier Brito got the Lemurs (21-26) going with a single on the first pitch of the second against AirHogs starter Ramon Garcia (0-1), before Garcia just missed on a barehand attempt on Stephen Pearson’s one-out grounder up the middle. That brought up Palmer Karr, Jr., who lined a three-run home run to left to give the Lemurs the lead.

The AirHogs (35-14) threatened with two walks in the first, two hits in the third, one in the fourth and two in the fifth, but Way (5-3) stranded all seven baserunners.

His mates got him an insurance run in the sixth on a Karr single and one more on a Brito hit with two outs in the seventh, and Way did the rest, retiring 12 AirHogs in a row until Trent Lockwood doubled with two outs in the ninth, before getting David Thomas to foul out to first to complete his second shutout of the year.

Notes: The last AirHogs loss was on June 25 in Worcester...Way induced 14 groundouts and only gave up five flyouts. He threw 30 pitches in the first inning and needed 102 the rest of the way…Lockwood’s two doubles were the only extra-base hits for the AirHogs and he was the only AirHogs hitter with two hits…Grand Prairie went 2-for-10 with runners on base and 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position, and had the leadoff runner reach only one time.

The 2011 American Association Champion Grand Prairie AirHogs continue their four-game series against the Laredo Lemurs on Monday, July 9, at 7:30 p.m. The next home game at QuikTrip Park is on Friday, June 20, at 7:05 against the Kansas City T-Bones, with Coors Light Jerseys off our Backs Night, where all fans will have a chance to win the AirHogs’ specialty jerseys right off their backs. 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.