STAFF REPORTS
BUFFALO, N.Y. — The Wings took home a 3-2 victory on Father’s Day from Coca-Cola Field. Reese McGuiredelivered a go-ahead sacrifice fly in the sixth inning to break a 2-2 tie, giving Buffalo the win.
Buffalo was in business in the sixth inning with the game knotted at two. Tellez led off the inning with a double high off the left-field wall. He arrived at third after Anthony Alford grounded out to the right side. One batter later, McGuire sent a fly ball to center field and Rowdy Tellez tagged up to score. Tellez’s run was ultimately the deciding factor of the game.
“Rowdy did a great job leading it off there with a double,” McGuire said after the game. He also gave praise to Alford, who got Tellez into a position to be able to tag up.
“He [Alford] got into a two-strike count. We were talking to him in the dugout. That’s a huge at-bat for him, to be able to stick it out and put a ball in play to the right side… and give me a chance to get him in.”
Down a run early, the Wings brought home two runs to take the lead in the second. With two outs in the inning, Alford launched a towering solo home run to left field–his first of the season and first of his Triple-A career. This tied the game at one.
McGuire followed by drawing a walk and Jason Leblebijian grounded into a fielder’s choice, but Taylor Featherston made an errant throw to the second base bag that went all the way to the outfield. McGuire scored from first base as a result of the play for the second run of the frame.
Steve Pearce went 2-2 at the dish and reached base in all four of his at-bats. He hit two singles and drew a walk in addition to being hit by a pitch.
Buffalo starter Taylor Gurrieri, making his seventh start of the season, held the Plates to four hits and only allowed one earned run while striking out four batters in five innings pitched. He got out of two separate jams in the game.
The Plates threatened with no outs and runners on the corners in the third but Gurrieri worked out of the inning unscathed. He picked off Zack Granite at first base and caught Nick Gordon looking for a punch out. Then, he got the power-hitting Chris Carter to fly out to left field to end the inning.
Gurrieri got into another jam putting two runners aboard with one out in the fourth, but he induced two ground ball outs to escape the trouble.
“I thought Gurrieri threw better than he had in the past,” skipper Bobby Meacham said about the righty starter. “There’s something about him, just the way he looked out there. He looked more confident. he looked like he was more sure of what he was doing.”
Rhiner Cruz came in relief of Gurrieri and did a great job keeping the Plates off the scoreboard. He threw 1.2 innings and recorded four strikeouts. Jake Petricka also provided 1.1 strong innings of relief. He allowed just one hit and sat down two on strikeouts. Justin Shafer closed out the game and notched his fifth save of the season after retiring the Plates in order in the ninth.
