Canaries Series Recap

Well the second series of the season has come to a close as the St. Paul Saints traveled to The Birdcage in Sioux Falls, SD to take on the archrival Canaries. The 3 game road trip was a short one for our boys as they'll be back home this weekend.

The series opened up on Monday night with the only 2 undefeated teams in the American Association coming in for a fight on each clubs 5th contest. Alec Crawford got his first start of the young season for the Canaries it was Stephen Bougher taking the mound. The game would remain scoreless until the bottom of the 4th inning when the Canaries broke the game open with a Blake Schmit Home Run and a RBI by Frank Martinez later in the inning to make it 2-0 Sioux Falls. Sioux Falls would make it 3-0 in the 6th inning with Blake Schmit getting an RBI single, Kody Knaus came in for St. Paul following that run and would shut down the Canaries the rest of the game. But offensively the Saints would not go down without a fight, as Nate Hanson would drive in Willie Argo on a sac fly in the 7th to make it 3-1. St. Paul would try and rally on closing pitcher Chase Johnson in the 9th as Nate Hanson would get an RBI Double and again drive in Willie Argo to make it 3-2, but that's where it would end as the rally would fall short. Stephen Bougher got the Win Alec Crawford would take the Saints first loss and Chase Johnson picking up his 2nd Save in front of a crowd of 1,822.

Tuesday night would see the 4-1 Saints match up with the now 5-0 Canaries. Mark Hamburger would make his Second start of the season against Misael Siverio who took the hill for Sioux Falls. The Canaries would break the game open early going up 3-0 on the Saints by the end of 2 innings. But the Saints pitching staff would not give up and went another 7 innings without letting a run! Now it was the offenses turn to shine, as Alonzo Harris would smash a solo home run (2nd of 2016) to make t 3-1 in the 3rd. But it would be the 6th when the shine really started glowing as Tony Caldwell would triple as the first batter against reliever Shane Street scoring 2 and making it a 3-3 ballgame, but Tanner Vavra would put in Caldwell on an RBI Single to make it 4-3 St. Paul after 6. In the 7th Breland Alamadova would strike with his 1st Home Run on the season to make it 5-3 which is where it ended on Tuesday night. Hamburger would take the win (2-0) Street the loss and Ryan Rodebaugh would get the Save (2) in front of a crowd of 2,056.

The finale and series decider on Wednesday night would see Robert Coe start for St. Paul and Shawn Blackwell for the Canaries. For the first time in the series the Saints would open up the game in the 1st as Tony Thomas would get an RBI Double to drive in Argo and Almadova while Tony Caldwell would drive in Angelo Songco on the next at bat to make it 3-0 Saints. No scoring would occur until Blake Schmit drove a 2 run home run in the 5th to make it 3-2, but the Saints high powered bats weren't finished. Mike Gilmartin would make it 4-2 on a home run in the 6th, Willie Argo made it 5-2 on a sac fly in the 7th. The 8th inning would see the game move up to 7-2 and in the 9th another 2 runs were scored as it was 9-2 St. Paul. Sioux Falls would try to rally in the 9th inning o Saints reliever Chris Peacock as they pulled in 3 runs, but that's where it would end with a 9-5 win and an overall series win for St. Paul (6-1). Robert Coe took the Win (2-0) and the loss went to Canaries starter Shawn Blackwell.

After a short 3 game series away from home that drew a total of 6,025 fans to Sioux Falls Stadium, St. Paul will return for 4 games at CHS Field against the Kansas City T-Bones. The series opens up on Thursday with Military Appreciation Night, Friday is Friday Night Fireworks featuring the music of commercial jingles, Saturday is an Angry Birds helmet giveaway, and it's capped off with One Last Purple Game on Sunday featuring an all Purple Fireworks SuperShow. You might want to get tickets before withdrawl sets in as the Saints will take to the road for a 14 game road trip which is the longest in Franchise history, The road trip will feature 4 games against the Joplin Blasters (May 30-June 2nd), 3 against the Laredo Lemurs (June 3rd-5th), another 3 against the Texas AirHogs (6th-8th at Potter County Memorial Stadium in Amarillo, TX) and finishing out with 4 against the Sioux Falls Canaries (June 9th-12th). You can catch the homestand on www.americanassociationbaseball.tv with the Thu-Sat games starting at 7:05 PM and the Sunday game starting at 5:05 PM. And as always thanks for checking us out and remember Fun Is Good and GO SAINTS!