Former Wingnut Dustin Geiger makes old teammates pay in 12-3 victory

It’s a risk for a manager to unveil a new batting order, but a reward when he gets to do it again tomorrow.

Laredo will almost assuredly immediately reuse the revamped lineup it debuted Thursday against the Wingnuts, when the Lemurs salvaged the final game of a four-game series with a 12-3 win at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium.

The Wingnuts will have moved onto their series against Kansas City, which means they’ll no longer have to endure the vengeance of Dustin Geiger, who homered twice and had five RBIs on Thursday. Geieger was traded by Wichita to Laredo last month.

“There’s no hard feelings or anything like that, but it’s definitely fun to come back out here and play against your old teammates and have some success after a rough first three games (of the series) for me,” Geiger said.

Geiger went 0 for 6 during the series’ first two games from the lower half of the order, then was hitless in two at-bats after entering as a pinch-hitter on Wednesday. Geiger has batted .182 in 12 games since the trade, but his .351 average with seven homers in 33 games for the Wingnuts made him a good fit for the middle of the order.

From the No. 3 spot on Thursday, Geiger collected three extra-base hits, including an RBI double in the fifth inning, between his two towering home runs to left. He had his first multi-hit game since a 2-for-4 night for the Wingnuts on June 25 capped a stretch in which Geiger had 16 hits in eight games.

“I was struggling since I got down to Laredo,” said Geiger, who was dealt for right-handed pitcher Omar Bencomo. “It’s nice to have a big day. Hopefully that continues to roll through and we can go from here.”

Geiger’s move up in the order was the only change by manager Pete Incaviglia that had a major impact. Juan Silverio finished a home run short of the cycle and had three RBIs, but he was batting sixth just like he had previously in the series. Laredo had scored 11 runs combined in its most recent seven games.

Wingnuts manager Kevin Hooper also isn’t afraid to shuffle the lineup, and he has done so during some of Wichita’s colder stretches. Recent personnel changes have prevented Wichita from settling in on a permanent order, but Hooper has seen how cosmetic changes can energize a team, even if only temporarily.

“As a manager, you shake things up for a reason,” Hooper said. “Whether it’s to open somebody’s eyes out there, or a lot of guys’ eyes out there. Just (want them to) know that we’re not going to get comfortable with losing. If it works, you’ll probably stay with it. (Friday) night, I guarantee you that lineup is going to be the same for him.

“You try to keep things steady and keep them going as much as you can. We mess with (our lineup) a lot and we might continue to mess with ours. We’ll just see what happens.”

The Wingnuts did as much self-inflicted damage as Laredo did to them. Behind new starter Alex Koronis, who hadn’t pitched professionally since 2012, Wichita made four errors.

Seven of the nine runs against Koronis were unearned, but he compounded the issues by issuing a two-out walk before Geiger’s three-run homer in Laredo’s seven-run second inning.

Consecutive two-out doubles following a Wichita error in the fourth led to the Lemurs’ two-run inning, and Laredo scored two in the fifth after Jayce Ray failed to corral a fly ball to center field to lead off the inning.

“I don’t mind getting our tail kicked, but when we beat ourselves I don’t care for that one bit,” Hooper said. “When the game is getting out of control a little bit, we need to make plays. We need to make plays all the time, but in those situations we’ve got to minimize the damage, get right back in and try to chip back into it.”

This story was originally published July 9, 2015 at 10:48 PM with the headline "Former Wingnut Dustin Geiger makes old teammates pay in 12-3 victory."