GRAND PRAIRIE, TX --  Two ninth-inning runs propelled the Sioux Falls Pheasants to a 6-4 win over the Grand Prairie AirHogs on Wednesday night, evening the series at one game apiece.

With two outs and nobody on, Trevor Lawhorn drew a walk from AirHogs reliever Ronnie Morales (4-4). Jake Taylor followed and scorched the first pitch he saw to right field for a run-scoring triple. He came home one batter later on a passed ball for an insurance run.

Taylor was 2-for-4 with two runs, a double and a triple against his former team, joining Joe Anthonsen as the only Pheasants with multiple hits.

Grand Prairie grabbed an early 1-0 lead before the Pheasants plated three runs in the second inning. Cesar Nicolas doubled and scored on Lawhorn’s sacrifice fly, and Al Quintana and Joe Anthonsen each had RBI singles.

After the AirHogs notched a run in the fourth inning, Reggie Abercrombie’s single in the fifth gave the Pheasants a 4-2 lead.

Pheasants starter Mark Michael turned in a quality start. He allowed just two runs, one earned on just four hits in six innings. He did not walk anybody until sixth inning, walking two and striking out six.

Jairo Perez hit a two-out, two-run double to tie the game in the seventh inning off Kyle Mertins (3-1), but Mertins struck out clean-up hitter Andres Rodriguez to end the seventh and pitched a scoreless eighth.

Mertins earned his third relief win, helped by a key double play in the eighth. John Alonso drew a one-out walk. Former Pheasant Jonny Kaplan then flew out to left field, but Alonso was fooled by Pheasants into thinking the ball was not caught, and he was doubled off.

Alan DeRatt yielded a walk but nothing else in the ninth inning to notch his fifth save.

The rubber game of the three-game series is at 7:05 p.m. on Thursday.

Courtesy:  Sioux Falls Pheasants

More From KSOO-AM / ESPN Sioux Falls