Saltdogs Win 4th Straight Series

LINCOLN, Neb. - The Lincoln Saltdogs were playing from behind all night long, but in the bottom of the ninth an Albenis Machado bunt single with two outs scored the winning run, giving the Dogs the 7-6 victory.

The Dogs fell behind by two runs twice in the game against the Sioux Falls Canaries, but three key double plays kept Lincoln in the game until the ninth inning heroics helped the Saltdogs prevail.

With the scored tied at six in the bottom of the ninth, Dan Underwood started the inning with a single to center field. Mike Goss put down the sac bunt to move Underwood into scoring position with one down. With Underwood at third the Canaries intentionally walked Cory Harris, bring Machado to the plate. With the third baseman playing back, Machado laid down a perfect bunt that just rolled past third base for the first walk-off victory of the year for Lincoln.

Jared Hoerman, who came in with one out in the ninth picked up his second win of the year for Lincoln. He induced a double play ball from Kyle Kmiecik to get out of the inning with runners on first and second with one out. Reliever John Wesley (4-3) took the loss for Sioux Falls, allowing the one run on two hits.

Lincoln started Michael Kesten struggled through the first three innings walking four batters and hitting a pair of Canary batters. Sioux Falls used those two hit-batsmen in the top of the second inning to take their first lead in the game. With the bases loaded, Kesten hit the nine-hole hitter Chris Weber to force in the first run of the game with one down. The next batter, Anthony Monegan, walked to give Sioux Falls the 2-0 advantage.

Two walks lead to two runs in the top of the third inning for the Canaries. Edgard Clemente lead the inning off with a walk, he advanced to second on a wild pitch and scored off a single by Alex Llanos. Kirk Pierce also walked in the inning was able to score when Llanos was caught in a rundown between first and second base.

Bryan Warner continued his RBI run in the top of the fifth when he drove in the first run of the game for the dogs and his ninth run batted in against Sioux Falls in this series. The scoring continued for the Dogs as Pichi Balet followed with a two RBI double to the left field corner. After the second error of the inning by shortstop Chris Weber, Kevin Sullivan finished the scoring for Lincoln with an RBI single scoring Balet.

Two straight hits to the left center gap put Sioux Falls right back in the lead after the Dogs tied the game in the fifth. Abner Arroyo singled and scored on a long double to the wall by Pierce, his second RBI of the game. The Canaries tried a suicide squeeze with Llanos on third, but Jonny Kaplan missed the bunt with the pitch in the dirt and Llanos was tagged out easily by Underwood.

A Chris Weber home run in the top of the seventh inning gave the Canaries a little more breathing room. It was his first home run of the year for Sioux Falls, and gave them a 6-4 lead.

Lincoln squared the game in the bottom half of the inning. Sullivan and Underwood started the inning with a pair of singles and they both scored when Gabe Suarez blooped a hit into right field for his 9th and 10th RBIs of the year.

The Saltdogs have won all three series so far in the second half and continue to sit at first place in the Southern Division of the Northern League. After a day off, the Dogs will head up to Calgary for a four game series with the Vipers. Rodney Myers is scheduled to start the first game of the series for Lincoln.

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