Kansas City 11 Kane County 1
Keyvius Sampson went five innings, Ryan Grotjohn and Ibandel Isabel each homered, and the Monarchs (60-30) clinched the South Division title with an 11-1 win over the Cougars (41-48) on Thursday night. A pair of first-inning groundouts gave Kansas City a 2-0 lead before Nick Conti launched a solo shot for Kane County in the bottom half on the tenth pitch of the at-bat. It was still 2-1 in the fifth when Grotjohn hit a three-run shot to break it open. Isabel added a solo home run in the ninth.
Cleburne 5 Lincoln 3
Behind seven strong innings from Jalen Evans (2 H, 2 ER, 7 K) the Railroaders (49-40) picked up a 5-3 win over the Saltdogs (47-43) on Thursday night. Curt Smith gave Lincoln an early 1-0 lead in the first on a walk, but Cleburne tied it in the second on a double by Skyler Ewing. In a tie game in the ninth, the Railroaders got two runs on a sacrifice fly by Alay Lago and double by Osvaldo Martinez to take the lead for good.
Gary SouthShore 7 Fargo-Moorhead 2
The Redhawks (54-36) missed a chance to gain ground in the north division as the Railcats (34-56) picked up a 7-2 win at Newman Outdoor Field. Chris Erwin did not give up a run in five innings for Gary SouthShore, and Daniel Lingua was 3-for-5 with a run scored and another one driven in. Alec Olund and Michael Woodworth also had multi-hit games for the Railcats. Sam Dexter picked up his 48th RBI of the season for Fargo-Moorhead.
Milwaukee 19 Winnipeg 1
Christian Correa was 3-for-6 with two homers, three runs scored, and nine runs batted in as the Milkmen (53-37) walloped 22 hits in a win over the Goldeyes (47-41) 19-1 on Thursday night. Christ Conley also homered as Milwaukee scored all 19 runs in five of the first six innings to gain ground in the north division race. Kyle Martin drove home Max Murphy for Winnipeg’s only run of the game.
Houston 8 Sioux City 4
A four-run fifth inning turned the tide as the Apollos (15-74) came back from an early deficit to beat the Explorers (46-44) 8-4 on Thursday night. Taylor Zeutenhorst hit a solo shot in the second for Houston to tie the game at 1 before Sioux City’s Seamus Curran had a two-run double in the third for a 3-1 lead. But in the fifth, the Apollos got four runs on three hits and were aided by two Explorers errors to take a lead they would not relinquish. Gabe Wurtz added a two-run shot in the eighth for Houston.