SIOUX CITY, IOWA – The Sioux City Explorers (12-12) ended their four-game slide with a big 12-9 win over the Sioux Falls Canaries (11-14) Wednesday night. It was a game filled with offensive fireworks that saw the X’s come back from down 6-2 with an eight-run sixth inning to take the lead before closing it out for their first win since last Thursday. The Canaries were riding a three-game win streak into this one, but that ended as they fell 1.5 games back of the X’s in the West Division standings.
The Canaries offense fluttered early on as they scored one before loading the bases off X’s starter Jared Wetherbee. Wetherbee got out of the jam with a strikeout, but Sioux Falls already had a lead 1-0. The X’s didn’t score until the fourth inning while the Canaries built up a small buffer. Sioux Falls put up one run in the second inning off the X’s Wetherbee with a Jordan Barth RBI single before scoring twice off the Sioux City starter in the third with Marshall Rich and Darnell Sweeney RBI singles, ending the inning at 4-0.
The Explorers’ Wetherbee finally found his stride with his first scoreless frame in the fourth, followed by X’s offense that scored two on a Chase Harris RBI double to make it 4-2. The fifth inning started with a bang as Hunter Clanin hit a leadoff homer off Sioux City’s Wetherbee, but the rest of the inning was silent from the batters. The Canaries chirped up in the sixth after Brandon Brosher (2-1) relieved Wetherbee with one out, scoring another run on a Darnell Sweeney homer to make it 6-2.
With a four-run deficit and the X’s facing a five-game losing streak, the bats came alive, setting a season-high eight runs scored in an inning. The Canaries sent Angel Lebron (1-1) to the mound, and the inning started with an RBI single from X’s Daniel Perez, then a Chase Harris RBI single, followed by back-to-back bases-loaded hit-by-pitches. The Canaries turned to Jose Cruz partway through the inning before Jake Ortega hit a two-RBI single and Tyler Rando roped a two-RBI double to make it 10-6.
The birds didn’t back down, putting up three more runs off Brosher in the seventh to make it a 10-9 X’s lead. Matt Lloyd added to the Sioux City lead in the seventh with a two-RBI single to increase the lead to 12-9. The score would stay 12-9 until the end as Sean Rackoski closed it out, earning the save working the final six outs.
The X’s and the Canaries will play the final game of the three-game series Thursday night June 8 at Mercy Field at Lewis and Clark Park.
