LINCOLN, NE – The Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks launched four home runs and beat the Lincoln Saltdogs 9-4 on Tuesday night.
Starter Tyler Herron gave up three blasts on the way to the loss for Lincoln (11-8). The Saltdogs continued to hit it out of the park too. Curt Smith and Christian Ibarra each went deep to make it four straight multi-homer games. Smith has long balls in each of the last three games.
Fittingly, the game began with a homer. Brennan Metzger hit the second pitch of the game out of the park to give Fargo-Moorhead (9-8) the early lead.
The offense continued for the RedHawks in the second inning. Randolph Oduber bounced a ball over the third baseman’s head and got a double. Then, with two outs, Leo Pina doubled in a run. Yhoxian Medina struck out in the next at bat but reached base after the ball caromed off catcher Brant Whiting’s gear and into the Saltdogs dugout. During the next at bat, Medina stole second base and Lincoln caught Pina in a pickle between third and home but failed to get a tag down. Three pitches later, Metzger went deep again to make it 5-0.
The Saltdogs got on the board in the sixth. Omar Obregon began the inning with a double and Christian Ibarra ripped a homer to left field to make it a three-run game. The shot was Ibarra’s fourth of the season. He extended his hit streak to 12 games and finished a triple short of the cycle.
Fargo-Moorhead found the distance again in the eighth inning. Charlie Valerio belted a three-run homer off Herron to make it 8-2. Aside from the homers, Herron was solid. He lasted eight innings, issued just one walk and struck out a season-high 10 batters.
The home runs continued into the bottom of the eighth. This time Smith went yard with a two-run blast to trim it to a four-run game.
Yhoxian Medina completed the scoring in the ninth with a solo shot off Saltdogs reliever Brian Loconsole.
D.J. Brown earned the win for Fargo-Moorhead. The righty went 7.1 innings and surrendered three runs on seven hits. He struck out nine batters and didn’t issue a walk.
The Saltdogs were error-free for the eighth straight game. The game was played in a season-low 2:30 in front of 2,272 fans.
The teams square off in the rubber match on Wednesday night. First pitch is at 6:45 PM and coverage begins at 6:15 PM on ESPN 101.5 FM 1480 AM and saltdogs.com.
For more information on the Saltdogs, follow the team on Facebook and Twitter/Instagram @saltdogsball. For ticket information visit https://saltdogs.com/tickets/ or call (402) 474-2255.