Birds split a pair on day two of Gopher Classic

Chester Bird battled for a 10-9 win over West Warwick in game one, Saturday, but had little left with which to challenge Sioux Falls East, dropping a 15-0 decision in five innings in the second game of day two at the Jim Hanus Gopher Classic.

After giving up a pair of runs in the top of the first inning to West Warwick, the Birds responded with three runs in both the first and second innings to take a 6-2 lead.

Jimmy Heck led off the inning with a single and Greg Zeman immediately followed with a run-scoring double. Joe Melles followed with a walk, followed by singles by Gabe MacDonald and John Kernan, the latter of which drove home Melles, and Jack McGinn would go on to drive home MacDonald with a base hit.

In the second, the rally started with two out when Melles singled and scored on MacDonald's double. Kernan then followed with a run-scoring single and scored on a Marcus Barone base hit.

However, West Warwick scored single runs in the third and fourth innings and a three-run fifth gave them 7-6 lead.

The Birds responded, however, by tallying four runs in the bottom of the fifth as Kernan singled and, one out later, McGinn hit a two-run home run to put the hosts ahead for good. Following a Spencer Shaver base hit, Dan Labosky, made his Chester Bird debut as a pinch runner and promptly stole second base before scoring on Heck's base hit. A double steal then saw Sutherland score the final run of the inning.

Scott Quinby got the win for The Birds in relief of MacDonald, who gave his team a chance to win despite laboring through 4.2 innings, in which he needed 118 pitches. Quinby gave up two uneared runs on two hits and two walks for his third win of the season.

Heck's 4-for-4 performance at the plate led Chester Bird's offense. McGinn had two hits and three RBI while MacDonald and Kernan also had a pair of hits each.

Sioux Falls East, which had the luxury of resting since finishing play at approximately 1 p.m. the previous day, was ready to go and used a 16-hit attack, which featured four doubles and a home run, to score 15 runs in five innings.

The Birds conclude tournament play, Sunday, with a 6 p.m. game against the Rochester Redhawks.