08/09/2005 10:19 PM - The Kansas City T-Bones scored four times in the top of the seventh inning to stake starter Greg Bicknell to an 8-2 lead. Bicknell would allow three runs in the bottom of the inning before giving way to the bullpen, which would hold Lincoln scoreless in a 9-5 Kansas City win in front of 3,692 at Haymarket Park in Lincoln, Neb.

Lincoln drew first blood in the game, with a run-scoring double by Mike Goss and an RBI single by Bryan Warner against Bicknell (W, 12-4). But Kansas City would come back with eight unanswered runs to take an 8-2 lead.

Mike Brown's fourth-inning double tied the game at two apiece before Chad Sosebee's solo homer, his ninth of the season, gave Kansas City the lead in the next inning. The backbreaker for Lincoln, however, was in the sixth inning, when Brandon Jones grounded back to their starter, Kyle Ruwe (L, 3-1), which should have ended the inning. Ruwe overthrew his first baseman, Pichi Balet, and the three-base error allowed Cody Nowlin to score from first with the fourth T-Bone run.

Ray Brown doubled in two in the seventh inning, followed by a David Segui RBI single, to stake Bicknell to an 8-2 lead. But the Kansas City starter allowed two homers in the bottom of the inning to cut the lead to 8-5 before reliever Mike Cosgrove, in his first appearance as a T-Bone, retired the final two batters of the inning.

Cosgrove also threw a scoreless eighth, retiring Cory Harris with the bases loaded and two outs, before giving way to Jonathan Krysa, who also threw a scoreless frame.

With the win, the T-Bones (37-33, 10-14) now trail Lincoln (40-31, 13-10) by 3 1/2 games in the South Division second-half race and are two games back of Gary in the potential wild-card race. If Fargo hangs on to win the second half (as of press time, they led the division by seven games), the team with the next best overall record would qualify for the Northern League playoffs.