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Sneed Victorious Again Despite Rough Start
July 8, 2015

In his previous outing, Kramer Sneed spotted the opposition two runs before the Saints came to bat. However, they were the only runs he allowing, giving his St. Paul teammates the chance to come back and win.

On Wednesday night, against the Ottawa Champions of the CanAm League, Sneed doubled the visitors’ fun, giving up four runs in the first.

It still wasn’t a deep enough hole for the Saints, who came back to win 7-5 and up their record to 35-10.

Sneed walked two batters in the first to go with a couple of bloop singles and another that found a hole to the outfield, along with the big blast, a two-run double to right-center by Champions catcher Bryce Massanari.

As he had done against Fargo-Moorhead last Friday, Sneed stopped the opposing bats in the coming innings.

Ottawa left-hander Andrew Werner, who pitched eight games for the San Diego Padres in 2012, held the Saints to two singles through the first three innings. His undoing began with one out in the fourth when he walked Ian Gac, who went to third when Angelo Songco crushed a hanging breaking pitch off the right-field wall. Mike Kvasnicka brought home Gac with a ground out, and Werner was only an out away from getting out of the inning with minimal damage.

Werner then walked the seven- and eight-hitters, Joey Paciorek and Anthony Phillips, to load the bases. Dan Kaczrowski then lined a double to left, scoring two and cutting the Ottawa lead to 4-3. Alonzo Harris erased that with a line-drive single to left-center, scoring Phillips and Kaczroswki to put St. Paul ahead 5-4.

Sneed gave it back in the top of the fifth on a single by 34-year-old player-coach Sebastian Boucher, another double by Massanari, and a sacrifice fly by Jon Talley to tie the game.

With two out in the bottom of the inning Gac doubled and Songco lined another drive to right, this one high enough to clear the fence for a two-run homer, his seventh home run of the season and 100th of his career.

Sneed pitched through six innings—not his best outing of the year but one that upped his record to 8-1—as Dylan Chavez, Mike Zouzalik, and Ryan Rodebaugh pitching the final three, Rodebaugh getting his 10th save of the season.

Songco, in addition to his double and home run, had singled in the second inning, leaving him a triple away from the cycle when he came up in the eighth. This time he hit a high fly beyond Boucher in center and appeared he was going to motor for three bases. However, he rounded second and stopped, wiping out a sure triple as Boucher’s throw in got away from relay-man Daniel Bick. On the misplay, Songco took off for third, only to be thrown out there by Bick.

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