Mistakes doom Wingnuts in 7-6 loss to Lincoln

By the time the ball jumped off the bat of Alberto Gonzalez in the eighth inning against Lincoln on Friday night, the Wingnuts had probably learned not to trust appearances.

A half-inning earlier, it looked like Wichita would escape the top of the eighth inning without having to face Lincoln’s three most dangerous hitters. But pitcher Daniel Carela made a wild throw on a potential double play, scoring the go-ahead run.

Carela couldn’t get through the meat of Lincoln’s order, either. Former Wingnuts first baseman C.J. Ziegler delivered an RBI single, his fourth hit of the night, and Lincoln won 7-6 at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium.

Gonzalez batted with the bases loaded in the bottom of the eighth. His deep fly ball, which looked as if it had home run potential, was caught on the warning track in left field and Gonzalez settled for a sacrifice fly.

Later in the inning, Wichita couldn’t manage to get into the heart of its own order. With one out, Jayce Ray was picked off first base, and David Espinosa’s fly out to right field stranded the tying run on third.

The Wingnuts were done in by mistakes on Friday. They committed four errors, including three by pitchers, and may have escaped Lincoln’s run-scoring innings with no damage if routine plays were made.

“That’s the definition of beating yourself tonight,” Wingnuts manager Kevin Hooper said. “You talk about opportunity after opportunity. Silly stuff. Unacceptable stuff, too.”

Lincoln scored in the fifth when Wichita starter Scott Kuzminsky’s pickoff throw to first base sailed over the head of Matt Padgett, allowing a run to score. In the eighth, Daniel Bennett failed to handle a softly hit groundball near the mound, and Matt Forgatch reached base.

That error guaranteed, without a double play, that Lincoln would get back to the top of its order. The double play nearly came when Eddie Young hit a sharp grounder back to Carela, but the throw to second was wide and bounced off Gonzalez’s glove and into center field.

“You come in and do a job and make it happen, then you baby (a throw) to second base,” Hooper said. “It’s just unfortunate.”

Carela walked Mitch Canham, whose three hits on Friday raised his average to .482, but regained momentum by retiring No. 3 hitter Jon Gaston after seven pitches on a fly ball to shallow center field that failed to score an insurance run from third base.

Ziegler picked up the important RBI when Carela couldn’t finish him off. Like against Gaston, Carela got two quick strikes against Ziegler but couldn’t finish him off while pitching just beyond the edges of the strike zone.

On a 2-2 count, Ziegler singled to left field, putting Lincoln up by two runs and affording the Saltdogs’ leaky bullpen some wiggle room. Wichita was retired in order in the ninth inning.

The Wingnuts led 3-1 and 5-4 but Lincoln tied the score quickly following both deficits. Gaston’s two-run homer made it 3-3 in the third and Canham’s RBI single tied it again in the seventh.

Because of the errors, Wichita was unable to prevent Canham, Gaston and Ziegler from making a bigger impact in the eighth. Ray’s pickoff with the tying run 90 feet from home and one of the Wingnuts’ best hitter in the eighth prevented much of the heart of Wichita’s order from coming up in more meaningful situations.

“We get our opportunity and we end up getting picked off first base,” Hooper said. “I don’t know what to say about that. That’s unacceptable. The tying run’s (at third). He’s the go-ahead run and we’ve got to get this one in before we can play on. It’s just being too aggressive and panicking too much, I guess.”

This story was originally published June 12, 2015 at 11:14 PM with the headline "Mistakes doom Wingnuts in 7-6 loss to Lincoln."