Another trip to the Lake: Series Recap against Winnipeg

CHS Field at Sunset

Well everyone the Saints opened their longest honest and of the season against the Goldeyes for another series against Winnipeg. The last time the Saints met the Goldeyes was last weekend at Shaw Park in Winnipeg, Manitoba. In that series the Saints took the series sweep with a 6-5 win on Friday, an 11-5 win on Saturday, and a 6-1 win on Sunday.

The series opened up on Friday night when the Saints helped open up Twin Cities Pride 2016. To open up the game the Saints would score 3 runs in the bottom of the first. Nate Hanson drove in Breland Alamadova on a double to make it 1-0 and a Tony Thomas single would drive in Hanson from 3rd and Songco from second who doubled the at bat before Thomas. The game would stay silent in the 2nd, that would change shortly in the 3rd. The 3rd would see 2 runs score when Josh Romanski doubled to knock in Hoopii-Haslam from 2nd and Gonzalez from 1st to make it 3-2. After those runs the game would remain quiet with neither club never really threatening again. Saints starter Mark Hamburger took the win and would go 8.2 innings throwing 7 K's and 2 walks, while Goldeyes starter Duke von Schamann would go 6 full innings allowing 3 runs with 5 K's and 2 walks.

Game 2 of the 4 game series was played on a hot Saturday evening in St. Paul. Starting for the good guys was rookie pitcher Kody Knaus while Ethan Carnes started for the Goldeyes. Unlike the previous  night the pitchers well just didn't do well at all. Knaus was pulled from the game after 1.1 innings when he gave up 5 runs on 7 hits with 1 walk. Carnes was pulled after 1.2 innings giving up 3 runs on 4 hits. The early pitching changes were only the beginning of what would be a long run filled game. With the Goldeyes leading after 2 they would extend their lead to 7-3 when Ridge Hoopii-Haslam would hit a 2 run home run to right field. St. Paul wasn't going to give up so easily, as in the bottom of the 3rd they would bring in 3 runs with Angelo Songco hitting a solo home run and Breland Alamadova hit a 2 run home run. With the score at 7-6 after 3 innings the Goldeyes weren't about to let the Saints off that easily. The Goldeyes would tack on 3 more runs to make it a 10-6 ballgame, which is where it would stay for a while. After 3 and a half scoreless innings the Saints would start their comeback. The Saints would score 4 runs in the inning all of reliever Cameron McVey. 9 innings wouldn't be enough and the game would move to the 10th. The Goldeyes would go up by 1 when Maikol Gonzalez was driven in on Josh Romanski single to make it 11-10 Winnipeg. St. Paul wouldn't give up that easily as Willie Argo would drive in Angelo Songco on a single to tie it up at 11. At that point the game would get weird as the next batter would be walked before a FC to get 2 outs. Aaron Gretz would strike out on a 3rd strike wild pitch which allowed Gretz to get safely to first and Argo to reach home which the Saints won the game 12-11 in 10 innings on Top Gun night!

Game 3 of this 4 game series would be played on Sunday at 5:05PM, Winnipeg would continue where they left off last by scoring 1 run in each the first and second to take a 2-0 lead. St. Paul would tie it up in the 3rd when Aaron Gretz hit a 2 run home run. Winnipeg wouldn't play nice as they would score another run in each the 4th and in the 5th on a Reggie Abercrombie home run make it 4-2. Willie Argo would hit a home run to make it 4-3 in the 7th, while a Breland Almadova RBI Single in the 9th would tie it up and send it to extra innings for the second straight night. In the extra innings it would be a dogfight to the finish as no one would score in the 10th, while in the 11th Carlton Tanabe would hit a home run for the Goldeyes while Chad Christensen would hit Willie Argo in on a sac fly to make a 5-5 ballgame after 11. The fish still had fight left as in the top of the 12th Reggie Abercrombie would hit a 2 run home run, followed by a solo shot by Jacob Rogers. Carlton Tanabe capped it off when he drove in Casio Grider to make it 9-5. St. Paul scored one run in the 12th but wouldn't be able to complete the rally to win as Winnipeg would win 9-6 in 12th.

On Monday night game 4 would come around with both teams having different goals. St. Paul was looking to win the series while Winnipeg was looking to split the series. The Saints sent John Straka to the mound against Winnipeg's Kevin McGovern. Straka's 5 innings pitched would NOT be something the Saints wanted out of him as he would give up 5 runs in the second inning and another 2 in the second when David Rohm drove in Hoopii-Haslam and Murphey on an RBI single to make it 7-0 Goldeyes. The Saints would score 1 run in the 6th to make it 7-1 but things looked bleak in the 7th inning. That was until the Saints started a massive comeback on starting pitcher McGovern in the 8th innings. St. Paul would score 5 runs on small ball in the 8th to make it a 7-6 game but were shut down in the 9th by Goldeyes closer Kyle Anderson. Winnipeg would take the game 7-6 in 9 innings to split the series with St. Paul.

With the 4 game series done against Winnipeg, the Saints are still at home until Thursday as they'll play a 3 game series against the North Division rival Sioux Falls Canaries. The series starts tonight at 7:05PM, the teams play a special matinee on Wednesday and cap it off Thursday night. Remember if you can't make it to the ballpark you can watch all the action on americanassociationbaseball.tv. St. Paul has a record of 26-12 now which is the best in the league. They lead Fargo-Moorhead (21-15) by 4 Games, Winnipeg (19-18) by 6.5 Games, and Sioux Falls (12-23) by 12.5 games. That's it for this time and remember as always Fun Is Good and GO SAINTS!