Twins’ top prospect Brooks Lee helps Wichita Wind Surge win first home playoff game
Bolstered by the arrival of the No. 8 draft pick by the Minnesota Twins in the 2022 MLB Draft, the Wichita Wind Surge delivered a dominant performance to notch the organization’s first postseason win in front of 2,058 fans at Riverfront Stadium on Tuesday.
Wichita drilled four home runs in a 17-1 rout of the Tulsa Drillers to capture Game 1 of the best-of-3 divisional series between Texas League North baseball rivals. The series now shifts to Tulsa, where the Wind Surge can advance to the championship series with a win on either Thursday or Friday.
Brooks Lee, the 21-year-old from Cal Poly and potential franchise shortstop for the Twins, helped begin the scoring deluge in the bottom of the second inning with an RBI hit. Lee, who was optioned to Wichita last weekend to join the team’s playoff run, was superb in his first taste of a professional postseason with a team-high three hits, three runs scored and two runs driven in.
Earlier this summer at Cal Poly, Lee won the Brooks Wallace Award, given to the nation’s top college shortstop and was rated as the second-best overall prospect entering the 2022 draft by Baseball America. Lee, who signed a contract with the Twins for $5.675 million, is hitting .461 (6 for 13) in three appearances for the Wind Surge as the team’s designated hitter.
DaShawn Keirsey, Austin Martin, Edouard Julien and Anthony Prato all smashed home runs for the Wind Surge and combined for 12 RBI.
While the offense garnered the headlines by scoring 17 runs on 14 hits, Wichita’s pitching staff did not allow an earned run in nine innings. Starter Bryce Headrick allowed an unearned run in five innings of work and struck out eight batters, while four relievers combined to pitch four scoreless innings to close out the game.
Although Tulsa owns a winning record against Wichita this season, the Wind Surge have been the most dominant team in the Texas League in the second-half of the season. Wichita won five of six games against Tulsa at Riverfront Stadium in the last meeting between the teams in the regular season and Tuesday’s game was an extension of the momentum.
Winning in Tulsa, however, has been a difficult task for the Wind Surge: The team is just 2-7 against the Drillers on the road.
Daniel Gosset is slated to start Game 2 for Wichita, as ESPN Wichita 92.3 will broadcast the game with first pitch at 7:05 p.m. Thursday.
This story was originally published September 21, 2022 at 6:00 AM.
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