By Luke Schrock

Grand Prairie, Texas– Behind seven solid innings from Tommy Collier the Kansas City T-Bones (46-37) won a franchise record eleventh game in a row 7-4 over the Texas AirHogs (22-63) Saturday night in Texas.

Losing pitcher and former T-Bone Erik Manoah Jr. (4-5) kept the game close all the way to the sixth inning where Kansas City put up three runs to make it a 6-1 ball game. Manoah Jr. let go five runs and eight strikeouts in six innings of work, but if not for the sixth, the outcome would’ve been way different. Winning pitcher Tommy Collier’s (8-5) night was a bit similar. He let up a run in the third inning to give the AirHogs their first run of the night, but that would be the only run he would allow in his seven innings. Collier had one walk, seven punchouts and six hits before his night was over earning him his ninth quality start of the season. Collier now has career win 22 in his tenure in the American Association. He ranks fourth all-time in franchise history behind Jeremy McGarthy (1995-1997) who played when Kansas City was in Duluth. 

The second and third innings started the scoring for the T-Bones, and Danny Mars and Daniel Nava were responsible for two of the seven runs for Kansas City. The sixth inning was the savior for the T-Bones as Roy Morales lead the charge doubling to score Daniel Nava and Mason Davis. Casey Gillaspie would keep the show going with a double scoring Roy Morales. Christian Correa would hit his first home run since leaving for the Pan Am games and his fourth of the season, making it 6-1.

The AirHogs wouldn’t go down quietly as they put up three runs in the eighth and put a scare into Kansas City’s chances of cruising to their franchise record win streak. Na Chuang started things for the Hogs, scoring Stewart Ijames on a single. Na Chuang scored on a passed ball, but Yang Jin and Li Xuhong scored the last two to make it 6-4 going into the 9th. The T-Bones put the cherry on top as Daniel Nava would get multi-RBI game number nine with an RBI double. 

Kansas City is officially in second place in the South Division— only a half-game behind Sioux City and three games behind Cleburne, who is on top of the division. Sioux City sees the T-Bones 10 times the rest of the month, and it will be a wild ride throughout the rest of the month of August.

The T-Bones will head to Sioux City to face the X’s Sunday in the first game of a three game series with the first pitch at 6:00 p.m. Catch all the action live on the T-Bones Broadcast Network.

For additional information or interview requests, members of the media may contact the T-Bones Media Relations Department at (817) 739-3693. Stay tuned to www.tbonesbaseball.com. and the T-Bones Facebook and Twitter pages for updates throughout the season.

Tickets to all T-Bones home games are on sale now online or by calling (913) 328-5618 or by visiting the Saint Luke's Box Office between the hours of 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. Group ticket sales are also on sale now. 

Box Score

-- T-Bones --