Photo by Jamie Dierking / Kansas City T-Bones
- ST. PAUL, MN. – The St. Paul Saints celebrated the 150th anniversary of helium Saturday evening at CHS Field and the T-Bones hopes for a win floated away early. Two four-run innings for the Saints were more than enough to lock down the W for St. Paul. In the end, the St. Paul Saints defeated the Kansas City T-Bones 10-2.
Back-to-back doubles put the Saints on the board first in the bottom of the second inning. Dante Bichette Jr. lined a ball into left field, then Nathaniel Maggio sent a pitch down the right field line into the corner, allowing Maggio to score and take an early lead 1-0.
It was a painful bottom of the fifth inning for Kansas City, as the Saints scored four runs on five hits. Kyle Barrett started it off with a single, followed by three other back-to-back singles from Burt Reynolds, Brady Shoemaker and Zach Walters that resulted in three runs scoring. After a pitching change to Joe Filomeno, Dante Bichette Jr. doubled to bring home Zach Walters, making the score 5-0.
Like Friday evening, the T-Bones waited until late in the game to score. In the top of the sixth, Keith Curcio singled, stole second and advanced to scoring position at third on a wild pitch. He then scored on a sacrifice by Colin Walsh to make the score 5-1 St. Paul.
In the top of the seventh, Alay Lago smashed a pitch from St. Paul starting pitcher Eddie Medina. The hit over the left-field fence lessened St. Paul’s lead a bit, making the score 5-2 Saints.
However, Lago’s home run was followed by a messy bottom of the seventh, where Kansas City was plagued by errors and walks that allowed four more runs to score. Francisco Gracesqui, who came in to relieve Filomeno to start the inning, walked two of the first four batters, then Justin O’Conner singled to load the bases with two outs. Jake Smith hit a slow-rolling, broken-bat ball to the Gracesqui, who short-armed the throw, pulling Noah Perio Jr. off the bag, allowing Smith to reach first and Shoemaker to score on the error and make the score 6-2. The next batter, Max Murphy singled, to score Dante Bichette Jr. and Justin O’Conner for the seventh and eighth runs of the game, and to once again load the bases. Gracesqui then walked Burt Reynolds to push home run number nine.
In the bottom of the eighth, former T-Bone Zach Walters smacked a right-field home run off relief pitcher Pasquale Mazzacoli to add to the pain and make the score 10-2. That would be the end of the damage, with a final score of 10-2 Saints.
Kansas City, however, remains in second place in the league, as they have for most of the season. The T-Bones (46-25) are now 1-5 against St. Paul this season. They wrap up a three-game series with the Saints Sunday afternoon at 5:05. You can listen to all of the action on the T-Bones Radio Network at http://mixlr.com/t-bones-baseball/.
