Aaron Crow worked five shutout innings and Brian Fryer had two hits and two RBIs as the Fort Worth Cats defeated the Grand Prairie Air Hogs 8-5 in front of 4,040 fans Friday night at LaGrave Field.
With the win, the Cats start the season with back-to-back victories over the Air Hogs.
With the game scoreless through the first 2 1/2 innings, the Cats jumped on the board with a run in the third inning on a Ryan Patterson RBI single. Fort Worth added two more in the fourth on a two-run double by Fryer.
The Cats extended their lead to 8-0 in the seventh inning as they got back-to-back two out walks followed by an RBI single by Pat O'Sullivan, a two-run double by John Allen and run-scoring singles from Kelley Gulledge and Aljay Davis to complete the five-run frame.
With the game seemingly in hand, Grand Prairie inched it's way closer in the ninth, stringing four hits together to drive Joel Kirsten from the game after 3 1/3 innings in relief. They scored three times before bringing the tying run to the plate and forcing the Cats to go to closer Dustin Cameron. After getting JB Tucker to pop to short, Cameron walked Derek Nicholson with the bases loaded before Cesar Nicolas flied to the warning track in left to end the game.
It was Cameron's second save in as many nights as he recorded the final two outs of the game. Crow (1-0) notched the win after permitting no runs on just two hits in five innings of work. He struck out nine in the game including seven of the last eight hitters he faced before giving way to Kirsten. Kirsten worked three scoreless innings before running into trouble in the ninth.
Matt Green (0-1) suffered the loss for Grand Prairie as he allowed three runs on six hits in five innings pitched.
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The two teams meet again on Saturday night at LaGrave Field. Dan Grybash will go to the mound for the Cats with Nat Harris on the mound for Grand Prairie.
