The St. Paul Saints paid tribute to the 40th anniversary of Animal House on Tuesday night at CHS Field by having a ballpark-wide food fight. However, food wasn’t the only thing flying, as the Saints beat North Division rivals Sioux Falls 11-4 thanks to a seven-run third inning.
Canaries starter Mark Seyler had a great outing going into the third, as he held the Saints hitless through two and one-third of an inning. Once the Saints picked up a hit off the bat of former Canaries catcher Aaron Gretz, the floodgates opened, including a three-run home run from Dante Bichette Jr. that put the Saints up 7-0.
The Saints added two runs in the fourth and two more runs in the fifth on a total of seven hits, with a home run from Joey Wong mixed in.
On the other side of the scorecard, the Canaries had a tough time getting runs through the first four innings, but they finally got on the board in the fifth, scoring a run on a one-out error by Bichette that allowed Patrick Fiala to reach base. He moved to third when former Minnesota Golden Gophers outfielder Dan Motl doubled and scored when David Bergin hit a sacrifice fly to center field.
After tacking on another run in the sixth the Canaries struck for two runs in the seventh when Bergin led off with a double over the head of Kyle Barrett. He scored two batters later when Jabari Henry hit his 10th home run of the season, this one to right field to cut the lead to 11-4.
Zack Jones came on and pitched a perfect eighth inning before giving way to left-hander Ken Frosch, who got the first two batters that he faced to line out to the shortstop before getting Chris Grayson to fly out to right field to end the game.
The two teams will play game three of the four-game series on Wednesday afternoon as the Canaries will send RHP Miles Nordgren to the mound. The Saints have yet to announce who they will send to the mound. First pitch is scheduled for 1:05 p.m.
NOTES
- Prior to the game, the Saints signed Connor Olson for the second time this season. Olson graduated from Concordia University St. Paul in May and had a previous stint with the Saints from June 16-23. He was signed then after Justin O’Conner was placed on the DL. He did not play in Tuesday night’s game.
- Kevin Winn, who was the American Association’s Director of Umpires resigned from his position on Monday afternoon in light of two high profile incidents last week during the Fargo-Moorhead Redhawks vs. Chicago Dogs series in Fargo. The first came on Monday when Redhawks player Brennan Metzger was ejected by the home plate umpire and responded by taking a trash can from the dugout and putting it behind the plate. He served a one-game suspension for that. The next night, Chicago manager Butch Hobson was ejected, and took the third base bag and gave it to a fan. The Fargo Forum reported that the league declined to comment on the resignation, and Winn was unable to be reached for comment.
- The Saints were able to gain a little bit of ground on the Redhawks, who had their game against Kansas City postponed due to weather. The Redhawks and T-Bones will play a doubleheader on Wednesday evening to make up the game.
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