Wingnuts sweep Saltdogs, win American Association title
Ryan Khoury didn’t want to talk about the possibility of the Wingnuts winning the American Association championship before it happened.
When it happened Saturday night, Khoury didn’t have words to describe it.
The Wingnuts beat Lincoln 8-3 at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium, finishing off a three-game sweep of the Saltdogs in the championship series and capturing their first title since joining the league in 2008.
Wichita had fallen short in the finals the previous two seasons, but the Wingnuts found symmetry in that. They finally broke through on their third attempt in a Game 3 win, reminding them of former bench coach Brian Rose, who passed away in January 2013 and wore No. 3.
“It’s been three years in the making,” said Khoury, the Wingnuts’ shortstop. “A lot of thoughts ran through my head about Rosie and all the threes. It was just emotional, trying to keep everything together. This team’s awesome, I couldn’t ask for a better bunch of guys.
“I don’t have words. It feels so good. This is what we worked so hard for.”
Saturday’s win was a snapshot of the Wingnuts’ season, which included a series of late-season transactions necessitated by injuries and players being sold to affiliated baseball.
Instead of providing a disruption during a season in which the Wingnuts set the league record with 73 regular-season wins, the moves worked together to make the team more formidable on the field and just as familial in the clubhouse.
The Wingnuts got contributions from several newer additions on Saturday – David Espinosa had two hits, including an RBI double; Abel Nieves walked three times and scored three runs; Jake Luce singled twice and was driven home both times.
Relievers Chris Peacock, Chase Johnson and Dan Sattler each pitched an inning to preserve the win for starting pitcher Jason Van Skike, who labored through five innings but often worked out of trouble.
“From Day One when I first arrived and got to know the guys, I knew this was a special group,” Espinosa said. “Obviously (I also knew) by the (win-loss) record. After that run we went on in late July to the end of the year, I wasn’t surprised we won. We were just destined to win, I guess.”
Lincoln led 3-0 after three innings, threatening to extend the series to a fourth game on Sunday. The Wingnuts didn’t have an extra-base hit until the sixth inning, but Lincoln mistakes meant that Wichita didn’t have to chip away.
The Wingnuts, after a run in the second, took the lead for good with a three-run fourth. Lincoln ace Joe Bisenius walked two in the inning, and the Saltdogs’ defense self-destructed. The turning point happened when center fielder Matt Forgatch dropped a fly ball, but Lincoln had two misplays and Wichita scored three on a pair of singles.
“When (Forgatch) made the error in center field, we made him pay for it,” Wingnuts manager Kevin Hooper said. “Good teams are going to make him pay for that, and we made him pay for that. We didn’t have too many hits there for a while, we just made some things happen and it was awesome.”
The Wingnuts scored again in the fifth, two in the sixth and another in the seventh to pull away, but in a way that created agony. Wichita didn’t end up needing those runs, so they just created a longer wait before the celebration.
Wichita’s bullpen expedited the proceedings some, retiring nine of 12 batters over the final three innings.
“They (the late innings) didn’t go fast at all,” Khoury said. “I was trying to cherish every minute of it, and I knew we took the lead. With our bullpen, it’s almost automatic, but you don’t want to take anything for granted. It was long, but I was OK with it.”
Khoury finished his third year with the Wingnuts, the only active player (Jake Kahaulelio suffered a season-ending injury in August) to spend each of the last three years in Wichita. Brent Clevlen shuttled between affiliated ball and the Wingnuts since 2011.
The wait was even longer for Hooper, who has been with the Wingnuts since the beginning, first as a player and six years as manager. He led the team to the postseason four other times before the stars finally aligned.
“Very special,” Hooper said. “I think it was our time. You put yourself in the situation this many times, it’s bound to happen. Everything was set up perfectly, it was just a special team all around. We had that feeling it was going to happen tonight.”
Lincoln | Wichita | ||||||||
ab | r | h | bi | ab | r | h | bi | ||
Mozingo dh | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Khoury ss | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
Nunez 2b | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | McClndn 3b | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
Forgatch cf | 5 | 0 | 2 | 1 | Espinosa 1b | 5 | 0 | 3 | 1 |
Gac 1b | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Clevlen cf | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Joynt rf | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | Nieves 2b | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
Hamilton lf | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Testa lf | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
Pinckney 3b | 3 | 1 | 3 | 1 | McMurray c | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Gilmartin ss | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Amberson rf | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Smith c | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | Luce dh | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 |
Totals | 33 | 3 | 9 | 3 | Totals | 32 | 8 | 10 | 8 |
Lincoln | 120 | 000 | 000 | — | 8 |
Wichita | 010 | 312 | 01x | — | 3 |
E— Forgatch, Hamilton. DP— Lincoln 1, Wichita 1. LOB— Lincoln 10, Wichita 8. 2B— Mozingo, Forgatch, Espinosa. HR — Pinckney. SB — Nunez, Khoury, McClendon, Nieves, Testa. CS — Khoury. SF — Mozingo, Clevlen.
Lincoln | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO |
Bisenius L,1-2 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 4 | 7 | 5 |
Barham | 1 2/3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
Montoya | 1/3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Wichita | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO |
Van Skike W,2-0 | 5 | 7 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 1 |
Peacock | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Zouzalik | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Johnson | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Sattler | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
Umpires—Home, Sean Hicks; first, Joey Stegner; second, Art Thigpen; third, Bryan Childe.
T— 3:04. A— 2,528.
This story was originally published September 13, 2014 at 11:23 PM with the headline "Wingnuts sweep Saltdogs, win American Association title."