Grand Prairie AirHogs Down El Paso Diablos 9-4 - American Association

MLN Newswire - www.mlntherawfeed.com - Grand Prairie, TX – Every batter reached base at least once on Monday night, as the Grand Prairie AirHogs defeated the El Paso Diablos, 9-4, from Quiktrip Park to win their third straight.

El Paso jumped on the board right away in the top of the first inning. Albenis Machado lead off with a walk. He would score on a Jorge Alvarez fly ball to center field that got over the head of Drew Holder, giving El Paso the 1-0 lead. The second run came in on an RBi single for Byron Smith up the middle.

The AirHogs would answer right back in the bottom of the first and second with a run in each inning. Both times with two outs, it was Grand Prairie making some noise. In the first inning, J.B. Tucker drilled a ground ball down the third base line that bounced off Evan Conley’s glove and plated the first run, Drew Holder. In the second inning, Aaron Garza drilled a line drive into left center field that brought in Brandon Carter to tie the score up at 2-2.

In the bottom of the third inning Grand Prairie added two more runs. With the bases loaded, Billy Munoz hit a grounder through the right side to give Grand Prairie the 3-2 lead. The very next at bat with the bases still loaded, Edwin Maldonado hit into a 5-4-3 double play that plated Derek Nicholson from third.

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Before the start of the top of the fourth inning the game was sent to a delay. The lights would not turn on and the game was suspended for one hour and 20 minutes until the lights began working.

El Paso came back fired up from the delay. With just one out in the top of the fourth Alex Derhak rocketed a home run into the cigar bar in left field to cut the Diablos deficit to 4-3.

The AirHogs made their biggest statement in the bottom of the fifth. Grand Prairie batted around and scored four runs off two RBIs from Paul Bartolucci and an RBI double for Billy Munoz. A fourth run came in on an error from the pitcher Jimmy Holm that he threw over the first baseman’s head to give the AirHogs the 8-3 lead.

In the bottom of the seventh El Paso got one more run back on an RBI single for Albenis Machado into shallow center field, but the AirHogs relief would shut them out the rest of the way. Grand Prairie added another insurance run in the bottom of the inning on a Drew Holder RBI single to pad their lead to 9-4.

Justin Garcia (1-0) got the victory for Grand Prairie. He went 2.0 innings allowing one run and one hit. Scott Drucker started the game for the AirHogs and lasted three innings, while surrendering two runs, none earned, with three hits and three strikeouts.

Josh Nietz (1-2) was credited with the loss for El Paso. He threw six innings, allowing six runs off of six hits with six walks and four Ks.

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