KANSAS CITY, Kan. – The Sioux City Explorers (18-22) exploded for a series-opening victory over the Kansas City Monarchs (20-20) Tuesday night, taking down the hosts 9-1. Sioux City’s Jared Wetherbee (3-3) paced the Explorers with a quality start, tossing six shutout innings while allowing just two hits from the Monarchs. Sioux City’s John Nogowski also had a big game, picking up four RBI with a HR on three hits while Scott Ota also had two RBI on three hits.
The X’s opened the scoring in the top of the first inning with a bang when Sioux City’s Scott Ota hit a two-out double before John Nogowski ripped a two-run shot to left field off Kansas City starter Gabriel Ponce (1-2), giving the Explorers a 2-0 lead.
In the top of the third, Sioux City’s Ota extended the lead with an RBI single off Kansas City’s Ponce, sending Daniel Lingua around and making it 3-0.
The Explorers blew the game wide open in the top of the fourth, starting with a leadoff shot from Sioux City’s Osvaldo Martinez off Kansas City’s Ponce, extending the lead to 4-0. The X’s then put together a one-out rally with three consecutive singles, including Daniel Lingua’s RBI off Ponce, sending home Daniel Perez and making it 5-0. Later in the frame, Sioux City’s Nogowski again came up big with a two-RBI single, driving in Jake Ortega and Daniel Lingua and extending the lead to 7-0.
The offense kept rolling in the top of the fifth, adding another run on the solo homer from Sioux City’s Perez off Kansas City reliever Julian Garcia, making it an 8-0 game.
That wasn’t all for the X’s; they added a final run in the top of the sixth when Sioux City’s Ota picked up an RBI single off Kansas City’s Garcia, sending home Lingua for the third time in the game and growing the advantage to 9-0.
The Monarchs managed to get a run back in the bottom of the seventh on a Hayden Jones solo home run off Sioux City reliever Rayne Supple, making it 9-1. That was all the Monarchs managed to get, however, as Sioux City’s Supple finished the eighth before Santiago Florez dealt a shutout ninth for the X’s, finishing the game.
The Explorers will play game two of the three game series against the Monarchs Wednesday night June 26 at Legends Field in Kansas City with a first pitch set for 6:35 p.m.
