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Consistent Offense Paves Way to Victory

Sioux Falls, SD (August, 24th, 2022) - The Sioux City Explorers scored a single run in each of the first four innings which led the way to a 7-2 victory over the Sioux Falls Canaries on Wednesday. 

On just the second pitch of the game Danny Amaral homered the opposite way over the right field fence to put the X’s on top 1-0. 

In the second, third and fourth innings Sioux City followed a simple and continuous formula, lead off double, move the runner to third, bring him home on a sac fly. 

In the second, Dylan Kelly doubled to left, advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt and scored from Miguel Sierra’s sacrifice fly to make it 2-0. In the third it was Amaral again who led off with a double, stole third and scored on Danry Vasquez’ sac fly making it 3-0. Kelly again led off the fourth with another double. Advanced to third on a bunt and scored on another sac fly giving Sioux City a 4-0 lead.

That was plenty of run support for X’s starter Nivaldo Rodriguez (2-0) who allowed only one run across six innings on four hits with nine strikeouts and a pair of walks. 

The only run Sioux Falls scored off him was a fifth inning solo home run from Gavin Lavalley. 

Sioux City responded to the homer with a two run sixth. A one out triple for Chase Harris and a walk to Sierra set the table for Blake Tiberi and Vasquez RBI singles to extend the lead to 6-1. 

Taking the loss was Joey Pulido (1-10) as he allowed six runs in five and a third on nine hits with four strikeouts and a walk. 

The Canaries scored a single run off the Explorers bullpen in the seventh on a Lavalley single to give the game its final score of 7-2.  

A win by the X’s and a loss for the Saltdogs gives Sioux City a two game cushion for the final postseason berth in the West Division heading into the series finale with the Canaries on Thursday. First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 pm from Sioux Falls and right hander Zach Hedges (3-7, 5.48) gets the ball for the Explorers and southpaw Ty Culbreth (7-4, 4.57) takes the bump for the Birds.