WICHITA — The duo of Cole Sands and Kody Funderburk limited the Arkansas Traveler offense to just one run to led Wichita to a 2-1 game four victory at Riverfront Stadium Friday night.
The Wind Surge offense did not need to do much tonight, but they picked up the runs they needed to win game four. The scoring started off in the bottom of the second inning. Leobaldo Cabrera led off the inning with a double down the left field line to set himself in scoring position. The next batter, Jermaine Palacios, ripped the first pitch he saw right back up the middle to score Cabrera from second and put the first run on the board for Wichita.
The Surge added the game-winning run in the bottom of the seventh. In just the third pitch of the inning, Ernie De La Trinidad came up clutch again with his ninth home run of the season. De La Trinidad blasted this one 401 feet over the left center field wall to put the Surge ahead 2-0.
The Travelers did not go away easily in the top of the ninth. Zach DeLoach led off the inning with a double to left field to put the tying run at the plate. A couple batters later, DeLoach scored on an infield single combined with an error to plate the first run for Arkansas. Jordan Cowan continued the two-out rally with a single to move the tying run to second and the go-ahead run on first. Kody Funderburk buckled down and struck out Jose Caballero to end the threat and seal a 2-1 victory for Wichita.
Cole Sands shutout the Travelers in his 18th start of the year. Sands threw 5.0 innings, allowed no runs on just three hits, and struck out four. Kody Funderburk earned his third save of the year with 4.0 innings of relief. Funderburk allowed one run on three hits and struck out five on the night.
Reminder Wind Surge playoff tickets for game three of the playoff series will go on sale Saturday morning at 10:00 a.m. Saturday night's first pitch is at 6:05 p.m.