By MATT FULKS, tbonesbaseball.com
LAREDO, Texas – The Laredo Lemurs are known for their offense, and they showed it Sunday night with a 10-9 win over Kansas City in 10 innings at Uni-Trade Stadium.
Laredo launched five home runs in the contest, but none was bigger than the one hit by Kansas City native Nick Van Stratten.
After the T-Bones tied the game in the top of the ninth with a two-out rally that produced three runs, Van Stratten hit a two-out, walk-off homer in the bottom of the 10th against Kansas City reliever Kris Regas. It was the second loss for Regas (6-3), the T-Bones All-Star closer, during this series.
Kansas City, down 9-6 in the ninth inning, and down to its final out, collected four consecutive hits. With bases empty and two outs, Matt Padgett doubled for the second time in the game and advanced to third on Ray Sadler’s single.
Then, down to his final strike, Nick Schwaner launched an RBI double down the left-field line, scoring Padgett and advancing Sadler to third. Bryan Sabatella came through with the game-tying hit for the second time in the series.
The T-Bones, however, went down in order with three strikeouts by Chad Povich (3-4) in the top of the 10th inning.
Laredo struck first off of Kansas City starting pitcher Joe Van Meter with a solo home run from Dennis Phipps in the first inning. Van Meter pitched 3 1/3 innings and was charged with seven runs to go with five strikeouts in a no-decision.
The T-Bones took the lead in the top of the second, when they struck for five runs, getting RBIs from Brian Erie, T.J. Mittelstaedt, Danny Richar and Padgett. All five runs were charged to Laredo starting pitcher Cesar Carillo, who didn’t get a decision in spite of leaving with the lead after eight innings.
The T-Bones (36-42) look to snap their season-high five-game losing streak as they conclude the four-game series Monday night against Laredo (45-33) at 7:30.
