SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO.com) — A pitchers’ duel on Thursday night with some late-inning drama saw the St. Paul Saints win a 13-inning contest over the Sioux Falls Canaries, 4-3.
The first six innings saw no score. The closest a runner came to scoring was Clint Coulter when he was thrown out at the plate trying to score from second on a Ryan Long single to center field in the bottom of the fourth.
St. Paul finally broke the deadlock in the top of the seventh on an RBI single by John Silviano that scored Chris Chinea to give the visitors the 1-0 lead.
Both teams were held scoreless in the eight and then the Saints added two insurance runs in the top of the ninth.
It took nearly the entire game for the Birds to get on the board, but they did just that in the bottom of the ninth. Logan Landon drew a leadoff walk. Two batters later Ryan Brett hit a one-out single. Andrew Ely worked a walk to load up the bases. Two batters later Alay Lago delivered a two-run single to cut deficit to 3-2. Nearly immediately after, Damek Tomscha knocked an RBI single of his own to tie the game 3-3.
The game went to extra innings after the Birds stranded the winning run on third. Both teams would threaten but scored no runs until the top of the 13th.
John Silviano hit a solo home run down the left field line to give the Saints the advantage once again, 4-3.
The Canaries got the tying run to second base in the bottom of the 13th, but failed to score giving the Saints the finale win.
Nick Belzer earned the win for St. Paul while Kurt Heyer took the loss for Sioux Falls.
The late innings overshadowed the pitchers duel through six innings. Grady Wood went six and a third innings in his start. He allowed just one run on six hits, three walks and struck out two. Mike Devine for St. Paul went six and two-thirds of shutout baseball.
UP NEXT
The Sioux Falls Canaries start new series at the Birdcage against the St. Paul Saints on Friday July 24. Friday is Christmas in July, with specialty jerseys that will be raffled off during the game. The Saints will be the home team for the series. Birds fans can find information on how to watch and listen at SFCanaries.com.
(Adam Bertsch, SF Canaries, contributed to this story.)
