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Sioux City, IA - The Sioux City Explorers defeated the Lincoln Saltdogs 11-3 on Friday night to claim a game one victory in the three game series against the two southern division rivals. 

The X’s used phases from all three parts of the game, hitting, pitching and defense to secure the victory over the Saltdogs. 

It started with the offense early in this one as in the second inning Sioux City used a walk and four straight singles to gain their early lead. Dexture McCall picked up an RBI on a base hit and Dylan Kelly put two runs across with his single and he would score on a pass ball to make it 4-0 Sioux City after two innings. 

The X’s struck again in the third. Jay Austin lead off with a single and Nate Samson followed with a double breaking what had been a 0-14 stretch for himself as he had a multi hit game tonight. Jose Sermo drove home a run with a single and Jay Baum followed with a double. A McCall ground out brought home Sermo making it 7-0 Sioux City at the end of the third. 

That was more than enough run support for Explorers starter Taylor Jordan (7-1) as he picked up the win tonight by going 6.1 innings, allowing just 2 runs on 9 hits, striking out 4 and walking 2. For Jordan it was his fifth quality start of the season. At one point there was three times where Lincoln had runners at first and second with no body out in the inning and Jordan was still able to get out of trouble and leave Lincoln scoreless. 

Lincoln did get to him In the seventh as again they put runners on first and second with no one out but this time Jordan could not wiggle out of the damage. Dashenko Ricardo drove home a run with a single and Christian Ibarra another on a base hit making it 7-2 Sioux City as Jordan exited the game. Tyler Fallwell then came on in relief for Jordan and struck out the only two batters he faced to end the inning. 

Sioux City would answer Lincoln’s two runs with four of their own in their half of the seventh. Once again Sioux City went on a hit parade of four straight singles with Baum picking up his league leading 49th RBI on one of his singles as he had a three hit night. But Daniel Jackson come up with the bases loaded with two out and hit a fly ball into left center field and the left fielder and centerfielder both slid to try and make the catch but collided with each other and the ball fell to the ground allowing the the bases to clear and all three runs to score making it 11-2 Sioux City as Jackson on the night had a three hit game with three RBI’s. 

Sioux City was able to rap out 14 hits in the ball game. There were a total of five players in the starting lineup who had multi hit performances and everyone in the starting lineup made it on base at least once in the game. 

Lincoln would tack on a run in the eighth but Ryan Horstman would come in for the ninth inning and strike out the side to finish off the Saltdogs by a final score of 11-3. 

Lincoln who leads the league in home runs this year with 61 through now 52 games, collected 10 hits in this ball game but none of them went for extra bases as Sioux City pitching was able to limit Lincoln’s power to a minimum and held the Saltdogs two big boppers in the middle of their lineup; Curt Smith and Brandon Jacobs who have 22 home runs already between the two of them to a combined 1-7. Sioux City pitching also struck out 10 Saltdogs in the ball game resulting in the 22nd time this year that Explorers pitching has struck out 10 or more of their opponents in a game. 

Sioux City will take on Lincoln in game two of the three game series on Saturday with right hander Keith Picht taking the mound for the X’s and south paw Kyle Kinman starting for the Dogs with first pitch scheduled for 7:05.