Saturday, July 07, 2012

11 wins in a row for Grand Prairie after 8-2 triumph in Laredo

LAREDO, Texas – The Grand Prairie AirHogs had at least one baserunner in every inning, rookie Will Irvin impressed through five innings in his pro debut and the bullpen threw four shutout frames after him, as Grand Prairie set a new franchise record with their 11^th straight win, beating the Laredo Lemurs 8-2 at Uni-Trade Stadium in the opener of their four-game series.

After stranding three runners in the first two innings, Keanon Simon came around to score from second on Brian Myrow’s one-out single in the third to give the AirHogs (35-13) the lead. But they left two more on in that frame, and Laredo (20-26) evened the score with a pair of doubles by Anthony Scelfo and Jimmy Mojica.

Grand Prairie came right back against lefty Ryan Sasaki (0-1), who was making his Lemurs debut. With one out, David Thomas singled and stole second, before Yasutsugu Nishimoto singled him in to put the AirHogs on top again. After an infield hit by Keanon Simon, Sasaki threw a wild pitch to put both runners in scoring position, then threw wildly to first on Bryan Frichter’s comebacker to allow both runners to score.

The AirHogs left Frichter at third that inning, then stranded two in the fifth, one in the sixth, two in the seventh before finally adding some insurance runs on Myrow’s two-run single, a Robert Romero wild pitch and a Lockwood double in the eighth.

But as Irvin (1-0) worked five innings of two-run ball, getting to first base to cover with two on and two out in the fifth on Stephen Douglas’s grounder to second to end his night, picking up five strikeouts while allowing four hits and no walks.

Derrick Miramontes got a double play to erase a leadoff single in the sixth and had a 1-2-3 seventh, Griffin Bailey worked around a one-out single in the eight and lefty Cody White marked his return to the AirHogs with a perfect ninth inning to finish off yet another win.

Notes: The only inning Grand Prairie did not have at least one hit was in the seventh, when they had a walk and a hit batter, and they had only one baserunner twice – in the second and the sixth…The AirHogs did leave 14 on base…Simon had a season-high five hits…Eight of the nine AirHogs got at least one hit and seven had multi-hit games.

The 2011 American Association Champion Grand Prairie AirHogs continue their four-game series against the Laredo Lemurs on Sunday, July 8, 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.