Wingnuts wait for a win, beating Laredo 1-0 in ninth

Luis Hernandez faced six Cy Young Award winners over 122 major-league games. He’s batting .247 for the Wingnuts this season, but the six and the 122 are more predictive when Hernandez bats with the pressure on.

No situation can faze Hernandez because he’s seen just about all of them. That’s why a simple, relaxed approach works for him in the clutch. A fly ball over a drawn-in outfield produced a ninth-inning, game-winning double for Hernandez on Wednesday, and the Wingnuts beat Laredo 1-0 at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium.

Often, those situations mentally defeat hitters who can’t reduce the objective to the minimal task it usually is. On Wednesday, Hernandez saw three outfielders move in when he came up, hoping to have an easier throw home if Hernandez hit it to one of them on a line. That only made his job easier.

Hernandez has two game-ending hits in his first season in Wichita.

“Right away, I just called it,” Hernandez said. “I said, ‘If someone gets on base, I’m going to get that guy home – and get excited.’ \”

The men on base were Brent Dean and Taylor Oldham, who were issued two-out walks by two Laredo pitchers. John Brebbia threw a first-pitch ball to Hernandez; on the second pitch, Hernandez’s fly ball barely got over the head of speedster Ty Morrison in left field.

Morrison made multiple impressive catches but Hernandez’s hit landed near the warning track, beyond Morrison’s glove, to score Dean from second base. Hernandez pumped his first and gestured toward the Wingnuts dugout, emptying to mob him on the infield.

“I was looking for a fastball,” Hernandez said. “(Brebbia) throws hard, and in that situation they don’t throw anything like a breaking pitch. I hit the ball very well, I didn’t know if it would carry well. It was good for me they were playing in because that’s why they didn’t get it. If they were playing back they probably get it.”

Wichita (25-19) most often failed with runners in scoring position, though it didn’t become a pressing issue because of Jason Van Skike’s 7 1/3 scoreless innings.

David Espinosa led off the bottom of the first with a triple, followed by a walk to T.J. Mittelstaedt, but the Wingnuts couldn’t score. Two innings later, Jayce Ray got to third with one out but was stranded there.

Outs on the bases took the Wingnuts out of a pair of potentially productive innings, and even the ninth took a similar path when Joash Brodin’s leadoff single was erased on Matt Padgett’s double play.

The Wingnuts’ bullpen, though, held Laredo scoreless to give Hernandez a shot at more heroics.

“Just got to find a way to grind one out,” Wingnuts manager Kevin Hooper said. “…That was awesome. All with two outs, too. Two big walks, then Luis coming through. He moved that left fielder way in, too – that guy can really run – and (Hernandez) got just enough.”

The Wingnuts have won four straight after losing 9 of 12 to pull within 1 ½ games of first-place Laredo in the American Association South. Wichita has surged thanks to reliability from all facets – in the first three games of the winning streak, the Wingnuts scored 27 runs, and in the last three they’ve surrendered two.

Van Skike continued the string of impressive pitching, allowing one runner into scoring position before he departed after an eighth-inning single. He survived a benches-clearing incident that resulted from an argument between Wichita catcher John Nester and Juan Silverio, who were both ejected before the start of the seventh inning.

That episode was a snapshot of the rivalry between the Laredo and the Wingnuts, who swept their division rival in the postseason last year.

“I hope everybody brings the best out of us,” Hooper said. “We play so many times. It’s typically us and them playing in the first round of the playoffs, that’s how it’s been so many times. We know it’s going to be a good matchup and a good ballgame more often than not.”

This story was originally published July 8, 2015 at 11:06 PM with the headline "Wingnuts wait for a win, beating Laredo 1-0 in ninth."