e-mail
print
RSS
reprint
AIM
Digg it
del.icio.us
A crowd of 5, 874 showed up on opening day to cheer on the Wingnuts.
Wingnuts win inaugural game
BY JEFFREY LUTZ
The Wichita Eagle
When Blake Gailen crossed the plate with the Wingnuts' first franchise run in the bottom of the first inning, fans were still piling into Lawrence-Dumont Stadium.
A packed house for a professional baseball game in Wichita has been a rare occurrence during the last few years, but the Wingnuts accomplished it on their first night.
When the fans finally finished arriving in the third inning, attendance reached 5,874 -- just short of the 6,111 capacity. The nearly-packed house witnessed a victory, as the Wingnuts topped Sioux City 7-4.
"I didn't really know what to expect," said Wingnuts second baseman Derek Schermerhorn, who played at Wichita State. "I know they've been promoting us well. I was hoping it would be a good turnout, and it was."
When gates opened at 6 p.m., an hour before game time, only a handful of fans took their seats. Half an hour later, the attendance was still modest.
But the crowd grew steadily. The Wranglers, Wichita's former Double-A team, finished last in the Texas League in attendance the last five seasons before moving to Northwest Arkansas.
The Wingnuts showed some opening day jitters, committing five errors. Starting pitcher Brad Davis was hardly dominant, allowing 10 hits without a strikeout.
But Davis didn't make many mistakes. He didn't walk a batter and escaped jams with three double plays and having a runner thrown out at the plate. Because of the errors, two of the four runs Davis allowed in 6 2/3 innings were unearned.
"So many young pitchers would lose their composure after an outing like that," Wingnuts manager Kash Beauchamp said. "He kept his composure and settled in, and it took him about three or four innings."
Wichita scored the first run of the game on Chris Colton's RBI single.
"I didn't really think of it like that," said Colton of delivering the franchise's first hit and RBI.
Michael Thompson had the first extra-base hit, a fourth-inning double that started a three-run rally. Right fielder Heath Keel had three hits, while Michael Thompson and Brenan Herrera collected two apiece.
The Wingnuts made the most of a small-ball approach, bunting twice and using Keel's bunt single and Felipe Del Rosario's sacrifice fly to create the big fourth inning.
Pinch hitter Stephen Pearson added a sacrifice fly in the seventh to cap Wichita's scoring.
"I've always said I think the sacrifice bunt is one of the most devastating plays in independent baseball," Beauchamp said. "It puts pressure on the defense -- we've got good team speed -- and it forces them to make a play."
Davis settled down after Wichita took a 5-3 lead in the fourth, cruising through the fifth and sixth innings before being removed after a two-out Schermerhorn error and a Nick McCoola RBI double in the seventh. He threw 104 pitches.
"I kind of wish we were later on in the season; I would have probably let him finish that game," Beauchamp said. "I really felt like he was really starting to get into a groove, but we're really cautious about pitch counts."
Notes -- Wingnuts infielder Kevin Hooper missed the game and will miss today's doubleheader because he is the best man at his brother's wedding... McCoola, a former WSU player in his second season with Sioux City, doubled twice, singled and reached on an error in the fifth inning... Wingnuts pitchers recorded their first strikeout in the ninth, when left-hander Richard Salazar got Jason Tuttle swinging. That was the only batter Salazar faced before closer Byron Embry came on to get the final two outs.
