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Kansas City Walks Off in Tenth To Take First Place In South

Kansas City, KS - A second straight nail biter between the Explorers and T-Bones ended with another Kansas City win, this time in extra innings on a walk off hit by Stewart Ijames to hand Kansas City the division lead by virtue of a 3-2 win. 

There wasn’t much wind at the ballpark during the game but the X’s bats provided plenty of breeze for the T-Bones infield. They struck out a season high 17 times and the first eight batters in the game struck out. 

Akeem Bostick was the main reason for that as the starting pitcher for Kansas City but he would only last two and a third striking out every batter he faced before leaving with an apparent injury. 

Kansas City began the scoring in the game with three straight one out singles in the fourth with Casey Gillaspie picking up the RBI to put the T-Bones up 1-0. 

Sioux City would score their two lone runs of the game in the fifth as the X’s used a walk and a base hit to put runners at the corners with one out. Kyle Wren who collected two of the X’s four hits in the ball game doubled off the left field wall to score Sebastian Zawada from third and a Drew Stankiewicz ground out to first would score Dylan Kelly. 

Dylan Kelly would reach base three times for Sioux City with a single and Kyle Wren had the only multi hit game for Sioux City. Between those two they combined to go 3-6 with a RBI, a run and three walks. The rest of the X’s lineup went a combined 1-27 in the ball game with the lone hit being a bunt single by Adam Sasser.

Kansas City tied the game in the fifth using once again a trio of singles to do it. This time it was Dylan Tice doing the honors, driving home the tying run to make it a 2-2 game. 

Eric Karch who got the start for the Explorers would take a no decision as he tossed five innings allowing two runs on eight hits, with one strikeout and no walks.

Tyler Fallwell would relieve Karch and toss a brilliant three perfect innings for the X’s striking out three. 

The Explorers had chances in the eighth and ninth to score the go ahead run, getting a base runner to third with two outs twice but could not find the hit they needed to score it. 

Which left the door open for Kansas City in the tenth to win it. Jose Velez was in his second inning of work after tossing a scoreless ninth and he would hit Dylan Tice with a pitch. Tice with two outs would steal second and score in a Stewart Ijames single that walked it off for Kansas City. 

The T-Bones with the win take control of the south division lead by a game over Sioux City and Cleburne with two games to play as Cleburne dropped their series opener to Fargo. The Explorers, though in a tie with the Railroaders, still hold the wild card spot thanks to a tiebreaker. And the X’s can wrap up a playoff spot with a combination of a win on Sunday and a Cleburne loss to Fargo. 

The game on Sunday will be at 7:05 pm in Kansas City with the Explorers throwing former big leaguer Taylor Jordan (6-10, 4.59) against T-Bones ace Tommy Collier (10-5, 3.57).