The Lincoln Saltdogs took a tough loss on Saturday, falling 9-8 to Sioux Falls in ten innings at Haymarket Park.  Lincoln drops to 30-23, 1-4 in the second half.

The game was a seesaw affair the entire night, and the tenth inning was no exception.  With two out and nobody on in the top of the tenth, Trevor Lawhorn hit a solo home run against Lincoln reliever Chris Thompson (2-2) to give the Pheasants a 7-6 lead.  Sioux Falls tacked on a walk, a triple and a double to add two more runs, taking a seemingly insurmountable lead.

Lincoln, however, refused to give up.  Roberto Alvarez greeted Pheasants closer Aaron Cotter with a leadoff single, and Pat Trettel followed with a long home run to left, the first of his pro career, to cut the lead to one.  Brandon Jones singled with one out, and with pinch-runner Vance Albitz on first, Rafael Alvarez hit a two-out double to right, putting the tying run on third and the winning run on second.  Phil Hawke came up and hit a low liner to right, but second baseman Hunter Jobes caught it on a short hop in shallow right and threw Hawke out to end the game.

The Saltdogs had originally rallied after Sioux Falls scored single runs in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings.  Roberto Alvarez hit a two-run single in the bottom of the sixth to get Lincoln in the scoreboard.  In the seventh inning, the ’Dogs scored three runs on a bases-loaded walk, an Argelis Nunez single and a double-play ground ball to take a 5-3 lead.

Sioux Falls put the next twist on the game by scoring a pair of runs in the top of the eighth to tie the game at five, but Lincoln had another answer in the bottom half.  Trettel singled against Andrew Pluta (2-2), went to second on a bunt, third on a single and scored on Gavin Dickey’s two-out RBI single to make it 6-5.  In the top of the ninth, Thompson retired the first two batters, but a walk and a bad-hop single put runners on the corners, and Joe Anthonsen singled in the tying run.

Trettel finished the night 2-for-5 with the homer, two RBI and two runs scored.  Brandon Jones went 3-for-5, while Roberto Alvarez, Dickey, Nunez and Juan Camacho all had two hits apiece.

The two teams play game three of their four-game series Sunday night at 6:05pm.  Right-hander Jim Paduch will make the start for the Saltdogs.

For more team and ticket information, go to www.saltdogs.com.