The Wind Surge snapped their five-game win streak tonight with an 11-6 defeat by the Tulsa Drillers.
The Surge got out to another hot start by scoring three runs in the top of the second inning for an early 3-0 lead. Trey Cabbage continued his hot month of August with another solo shot to deep center field to lead off the inning. Cabbage’s 12th home run of the season was his third in as many games and his sixth in his last nine games. Spencer Steer backed up Cabbage with a solo home run of his own to left field for his 11th of the season. With two outs in the inning, Aaron Whitefield singled on a line drive to left field, and then advanced to second on a throwing error by Ryan Noda. Whitefield then swiped his 23rd base of the year as he stole third. Chris Williams brought him home on a line drive to left field and Wichita had the early lead once again.
The Drillers responded back by throwing up six runs on the board in the bottom of the fourth and two runs in the bottom of the fifth off a Romer Cuadrado two-run home run. In the top of the fifth, the Surge had an opportunity to put themselves right back in the game. With two runners on, Jermaine Palacios doubled to left field to drive in BJ Boyd from second and move Roy Morales to third. In the next at-bat, Andrew Bechtold drew a walk to load the bases up for Wichita. Unfortunately, that was all they could muster out of the inning and the Drillers took off from there. The Drillers scored three more in the sixth to take an 11-4 lead.
The Wind Surge plated two in the final inning to draw the score a little closer. Leobaldo Cabrera struck a home run over the left field wall for his 8th homer of the season. Spencer Steer tallied another RBI on the night with a sacrifice fly to right field, scoring Morales and bringing the final score to 11-6.
Chris Vallimont cruised early on but got himself into trouble in the fourth inning and could not get out of it. Vallimont lasted 3.2 innings, allowed six runs on five hits and struck out five in his 15th start of the season. Adam Lau pitched 1.2 scoreless innings of relief and allowed just three hits. Zach Neff pitched the final inning and struck out one in his appearance.
NOTES: BJ Boyd extended his hitting streak to eight games.
COMING UP: Wichita will play game four of the series against the Tulsa Drillers Friday evening (8/13). First pitch is set for 7:05 pm from Tulsa, OK. Wichita will start RHP Austin Schulfer (3-7, 4.40 ERA) against Tulsa’s RHP Gus Varland (0-2, 4.91 ERA).