WICHITA, Kan.—Contact aplenty appeared for the third straight night in an 8-5 Wichita defeat against Midland at Riverfront Stadium. The RockHounds scored four unanswered runs over the final two innings to pull away with the final few outs remaining.
Luke Keaschall smoked his first Wind Surge home run over the fence in left field in the bottom of the first. The solo shot is Keaschall’s seventh leadoff home run of the season between Cedar Rapids and Wichita.
Cooper Bowman tied the game in the top of the third on a sacrifice fly to center fielder Ben Ross. Jorel Ortega scampered home on a wild pitch in the home half of the frame, followed by back-to-back run-scoring singles by Jake Rucker and Jeferson Morales to make the score 4-1 Wind Surge.
Caeden Trinkle and Denzel Clarke would cut the lead to one in the top of the fourth on a sacrifice fly to right field and an infield base knock to shortstop Tanner Schobel. A third straight run came across for the RockHounds on a Clarke solo home run three innings later.
Rucker floated an RBI single to shallow right-center to tie the game after the stretch in the bottom of the seventh. Midland’s answer was a two-RBI double to the left-center alley from Jeisson Rosario to push ahead 6-5 in the top of the eighth.
Colby Thomas’ sacrifice fly and a Shane McGuire RBI single gave the RockHounds enough insurance before a 1-2-3 bottom of the ninth ended the game.
Regi Grace received the loss in relief, falling to 0-2 in 2024 after giving up two earned runs on three hits in one and one-third innings with two strikeouts. Keaschall and Rucker had 4-hit and 3-hit nights, combining for seven of the nine hits for Wichita.