Wind Surge eye 1st Texas League baseball championship, 1st title for Wichita since 1999
Playing for a title is the only thing the Wind Surge know in their first two years in Wichita.
Wichita will play for the Texas League championship once again after dispatching the Tulsa Drillers for the second time in three days with an 11-1 win in Tulsa on Thursday night.
Now the Wind Surge, the Double-A minor-league affiliate of the Minnesota Twins, will try to capture the first affiliated baseball league championship for Wichita since the Wranglers won the Texas League in 1999. The Wingnuts, an independent club, also won the American Association Championship in 2014.
In a battle between the champions of the two divisions in the Texas League, Wichita (North) will face the Frisco RoughRiders (South) in a best-of-3 championship series.
Game 1 is slated for a 5:05 p.m. first pitch Sunday in Frisco, Texas. The game will be carried on radio by ESPN Wichita 92.3-FM and can be streamed online at MiLB.com.
Playoff baseball will return to Riverfront Stadium for Game 2 at 7:05 p.m. Tuesday. Wichita would also host the championship-deciding Game 3, if necessary, at 7:05 p.m. Wednesday.
Wichita was able to punch its ticket to the finals by accomplishing something it had done just twice in nine tries before Thursday’s game: beat the Drillers in Tulsa.
After a 17-1 rout in Wichita on Tuesday, not much changed two days later in Tulsa in the Wind Surge’s 11-1 win. Wichita racked up 10 hits and once again hit four home runs, including homers by Jair Camargo in his first two at-bats to stake the Wind Surge to a 4-1 lead after three innings.
DaShawn Keirsey Jr. blasted a solo shot to right field in the fifth inning for his second home run this postseason and Leobaldo Cabrera added Wichita’s fourth home run in the eighth.
Camargo, a 23-year-old catcher from Colombia, was the star of the night for the Wind Surge: He was 3-for-4 with five RBI and four runs scored.
After starter Daniel Gossett limited Tulsa to one run in the first four innings, Wichita’s bullpen combination of Cody Laweryson, Steven Cruz and Alex Phillips held the Drillers without a hit or run for the game’s final five innings.
This story was originally published September 23, 2022 at 6:00 AM.
.jpg)