Wingnuts’ offense erupts again

It often only takes one excellent early-season game to turn a struggling offense into a thriving one.

The Wingnuts have had two of those recently, and the inconsistencies decried by manager Kevin Hooper have turned into a balanced lineup with nine difficult outs.

Wichita beat Laredo 14-7 on Tuesday at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium and has scored 30 runs in the last three games, even though the Wingnuts managed one in Monday’s loss to Laredo.

Five Wingnuts had multiple hits as Laredo starter Sam Martin took the brunt of Wichita’s second hitting showcase in three days. After scoring two runs or fewer four times during a six-game homestand in late May, the Wingnuts suddenly have seven regulars batting .305 or better.

“Early on, it’s been up-down, up-down, up-down,” Hooper said. “If we can get two, three, four, five in a row then have just an OK (night), sure. I’m just looking for consistency. Really good tonight, though. We were ready, had some real good at-bats, hit all kinds of different pitches. Did some real good things tonight.”

The top of the order carried the Wingnuts through the first three innings, when Wichita took a 9-0 lead thanks mostly to seven runs in the second, then everyone else got involved.

A night after Laredo took a 2-0 lead after five pitches, the Wingnuts matched that effort in the bottom of the first. After Jayce Ray reached on an error, Alberto Gonzalez smashed a long home run to left field.

Gonzalez’s achievements on Tuesday would have looked even more impressive if they weren’t nearly matched by most of his teammates, but he still managed to stand out, going 4 for 4 with a homer, two doubles, three runs and three RBIs. He raised his average to .328.

“It feels good,” Gonzalez said. “I’ve worked hard in practice for this day. It’s a big day for me.”

After cleanup hitter Matt Padgett hit a three-run home run in the third, the top four Wichita batters were 4 for 7 with two homers, six runs and six RBIs.

Padgett’s homer also signaled the immediate contributions of the rest of the lineup. Joash Brodin followed Padgett with a single, T.J. Mittelstaedt and Brent Dean also singled, and Dustin Geiger had a sacrifice fly.

Between Brodin’s single and Luis Hernandez’s single in the fifth, the final five batters in Wichita’s order had six hits, five runs and four RBIs.

“We have a good offensive team,” Ray said. “There hasn’t really been a doubt, it’s just getting the hit at the right time. We’ll have two outs and we’ll get two hits in a row and it’s like, we need those hits earlier when there’s no outs so we can bunt them over, we can steal, we can do stuff with it.”

The recent acquisitions of Brodin and Padgett have lengthened the lineup to the point that Geiger, who displayed impressive power with a fifth-inning home run, bats eighth while boasting a .317 average and .500 slugging percentage.

The Wingnuts won’t need to bunt much if they’re a threat to produce innings like Tuesday’s third, when they had seven straight baserunners against Martin before Geiger was retired on a sacrifice fly.

Wichita had eight extra-base hits and made seven runs scored by Laredo during the seventh and eighth innings a meaningless figure. Just like the Wingnuts did Sunday in Lincoln, jumping to a 15-0 lead before Lincoln scored nine straight runs.

“If we can piece it together,” Hooper said, “and get consistent with it, we’re going to give ourselves a real good chance.”

This story was originally published June 9, 2015 at 10:58 PM with the headline "Wingnuts’ offense erupts again."