They got it done the hard way, but the Stingers finally did get it done.
Salt Lake closed its four-game series with the Sacramento River Cats with an 11-7 win Friday night at Franklin Covey Field, but it was the kind of win that gives managers heart attacks.
After taking a 1-0 lead in the first, Stingers pitcher Matt Hensley took a pounding from Sacramento, to the tune of six runs and seven hits, in the top of the second. After a quick out to open the inning, Hensley gave up a double to Jason Grabowski, walked Mario Valdez, and then gave up RBI singles to Esteban German and Cody McKay. F.P. Santangelo followed with a two-RBI homer, and before the inning ended Hensley would give up a second two-run shot to Frank Memechino for a total of six runs.
"That was tough, it was tough for Matt (Hensley)," said Salt Lake manager Mike Brumley. "Baseball is such a game of momentum, an inning like that can take some of the heart out of you."
For four innings, it looked like all the heart had gone out of the Stingers. Salt Lake got six of its 16 hits in the first four innings but managed just two runs, and by the time Sacramento scored one in the top of the fifth, the Stingers trailed 7-2.
On the bright side for Salt Lake, after the second-inning shelling the Stingers took, they settled down enough to hold Sacramento to just one more run in the next seven innings. "(Hensley) responded real well," Brumley said. "Once we stabilized, it enabled us to think we were just one big inning away."
And one big inning away they were. Salt Lake closed the gap with a three-run fifth inning and blew the game open in the sixth.
The River Cats started the sixth with Chad Harville on the mound, and it turned out to be Harville's bad luck. Leadoff hitter Sal Fasano hit a solo shot to deep left to open the inning, which Harville followed by giving up a single, a walk and two stolen bases.
After Jose Nieves drove in Alfredo Amezaga to tie the game, the River Cats pulled Harville, but it didn't get much better. Larry Barnes drove in two just after the pitching change, and Rick Short scored the final run of the game when he crossed the plate on yet another two-run homer.
"It was good to come back," said Brumley. "We stayed after them and chipped away untill we got it done."
Elvin Nina and Bart Miadich pitched the final four innings for the Stingers, giving up just two hits between them, and no runs.
The win improves Salt Lake to 71-57 and protects the Stingers' two-game lead in the PCL Central Division. Saturday, the Stingers begin an eight-game road trip that opens in Tacoma and ends in Portland.
"Our last eight-game trip we won five games," Brumley said. "We need to win one of the two series. Five wins would be good, but if we get hot we could run off six wins."
E-mail: sclifford@desnews.com