SIOUX CITY, Iowa – The Sioux City Explorers (31-37) saw one of their best pitching performances of the season Wednesday night as Sioux City’s Austin Drury (3-5) went seven innings to take down the Lincoln Saltdogs (27-44) 8-2, evening the series at home. Drury allowed just two runs in the game while striking out five in what was the third-longest outing of the season for an Explorers starter. The southpaw has gone back-to-back starts allowing just two runs in 6+ innings.
“Mainly the difference in pitches is just confidence. Going out, trusting were going to win the game, trusting my teammates,” Drury said of performance in recent games.
The Explorers took a few innings to heat up, and the Saltdogs took advantage early with a lead in the top of the second. Dalton Reeves made his professional debut for Lincoln, and in his first plate appearance, he picked up an RBI on a grounder to first, sending home Matt Pita and giving the Saltdogs a 1-0 lead.
The Saltdogs followed up in the top of the third with another run on a sacrifice fly from Lincoln’s Kyle Battle, driving in Dakota Conners and extending the Saltdogs’ lead to 2-0.
“The top of their lineup is always going to produce, so you always got to make sure those guys don’t hurt you and just work to navigate through the bottom of the lineup and limit the damage,” Sioux City’s Drury said of the Saltdogs batters.
Limiting the damage proved vital as the Explorers had a big bottom of the fourth inning, tying it 2-2 when Sioux City’s Daniel Perez notched a two-RBI single off Lincoln’s Foster Pace (4-2). Later in the frame, Sioux City’s Jake Ortega broke out of a rough stretch with an RBI single, giving the X’s a 3-2 lead, plating Perez. The next at-bat, Sioux City’s Daniel Lingua gave the X’s a nice 5-2 cushion with a bases-clearing triple off Pace, sending home Nick Shumpert and Ortega.
From there, Sioux City’s Drury put it in cruise control, shutting down the Saltdogs inning after inning.
“Coming out and throwing strikes, getting ground balls early. I know Lingua had a couple good plays, two line drives, so just building off each other,” Drury said about how he succeeded.
The X’s added more insurance in the bottom of the sixth on a sacrifice fly from Sioux City’s Scott Ota and in the bottom of the seventh on a balk and wild pitch.
Sioux City’s Zach Willeman relieved Drury at the start of the eighth and held it down until Nate Gercken took over in the ninth. Gercken retired all three Saltdogs in the ninth on just six pitches, finishing the game and sealing the win for the X’s.
The Explorers will face the Lincoln Saltdogs in the final game of a three-game series Thursday night August 1 with a first pitch set for 7:05 p.m.
