Link steadies ship for Wingnuts in win over Sioux Falls
Jon Link’s extra gear helped his Wingnuts teammates find theirs in a 15-5 win over Sioux Falls on Sunday afternoon at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium.
Clinging to a 2-0 lead in the top of the fifth inning, Link and the Wingnuts allowed Sioux Falls to load the bases with no outs on a single, a bunt hit and an error. The next three hitters were no match for Link and a fastball that popped the mitt of catcher Martin Medina.
Link struck out three straight swinging on fastballs to protect the lead. Wichita hitters added to it after that, scoring 13 runs over the final their final four turns at bat. Zack Cox hit for the cycle, finishing it off with an eighth-inning single. He hit a two-run home run and drove in five.
Leo Vargas had four hits and three RBIs, and Richard Prigatano and Brent Dean each had three hits and two stolen bases.
“They just find ways to get runs across,” Wingnuts manager Pete Rose Jr. said. “Sometimes, like any other baseball team, we’ll struggle with it, but they’ve been pretty good as far as getting runners over and getting runners in.”
Link mostly cruised through six innings and probably could have pitched longer, but the Wingnuts took a 9-0 lead in the bottom of the sixth and turned the game over to the bullpen.
Cox had the most impactful hit, though it’s difficult to choose which one best qualifies. He doubled in a run in the third, hit a fifth-inning homer and drove in two with a triple in the sixth.
Cox has raised his average from .232 to .276 this month. He’s had at least two hits in nine of 16 games and driven in 19 runs from the No. 2 spot in the lineup.
“Locked in? I don’t know if he’s locked in, but he’s pretty close,” Rose said. “He’s been swinging it this way for the past month and a half, if not the whole season. Just kind of a bad rut where he wasn’t getting many hits, but swings were good. Hitting the balls hard and having quality at-bats.”
Link struck out eight and improved to 7-3. He allowed four hits and didn’t walk a batter.
S. Falls | Wichita | ||||||||
ab | r | h | bi | ab | r | h | bi | ||
Schmit ss | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Stringer 2b | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
Perez db | 4 | 0 | 1 | 2 | Cox 3b | 5 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
Bergin dh,p | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | Clev dh | 6 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
Lashley p | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Mitt cf | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
Taylor 1b | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Chavez 1b | 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Guillen 3b | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | Medina c | 5 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
Monger lf | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | Prig rf | 3 | 3 | 3 | 0 |
Chapman cf | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | Dean lf | 4 | 2 | 3 | 2 |
Owen rf | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Vargas ss | 5 | 2 | 4 | 3 |
Fals. c | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | |||||
Pair c | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |||||
Totals | 33 | 5 | 6 | 4 | Totals | 41 | 15 | 20 | 15 |
S. Falls | 000 | 000 | 311 | — | 5 6 1 |
Wichita | 002 | 034 | 06x | — | 15 20 2 |
2B — Perez, Bergin, Cox, Clevlen, Chavez, Dean, Vargas. 3B—Cox, Mittelstaedt, Medina. HR—Monger, Cox. SB—Pair, Prgatano, Dean. CS—Dean. E—Schmit, Dean, Vargas. LOB—S. Falls 7, Wichita 9.
S. Falls | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO |
Regas L,3-4 | 5 | 8 | 5 | 5 | 2 | 6 |
Fairchild | 1 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 1 |
Thompson | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Bergin | 0.1 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 0 | 1 |
Lashley | 0.2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
Wichita | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO |
Link W,3-4 | 6 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 |
Pratt | 1 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
Roman | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
Johnson | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
T — 3:33. A — N/A.
Sioux Falls at Wingnuts
▪ When: 7:05 p.m. Monday
▪ Where: Lawrence-Dumont Stadium
▪ Records: Sioux Falls 17-37, Wingnuts 36-19
▪ Radio: KGSO, 1410-AM
This story was originally published July 17, 2016 at 7:24 PM with the headline "Link steadies ship for Wingnuts in win over Sioux Falls."