FM RedHawks Soar Above .500 on the Season Behind Dillon Thomas Walk-Off Sunday

THE FM REDHAWKS DEFEATED THE WINNIPEG GOLDEYES 2-1 IN 11 INNINGS SUNDAY.

FARGO (KVRR) –The Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks wrapped up six straight games against the Winnipeg Goldeyes Sunday at Newman Outdoor Field. After splitting the first two of the current 3-game set, Sunday provided an opportunity for the RedHawks to get back above .500 on the year, and they took full advantage.

Newman Outdoor Field hosted a pitchers duel. Kolby Kiser pitched six innings allowing just one run and picking up eight strikeouts along the way. Mitchell Lambson got the start for Winnipeg and took a perfect game into the sixth inning. His final stat line was 10 innings pitched allowing just one run and recording seven strikeouts.

The RedHawks turned to the bullpen after the sixth inning and got great work from Parker Harm, Garrett Alexander and Colten Davis. The trio combined for five innings of work allowing just two hits and recording six strikeouts.

The game remained tied at one to the bottom of the 11th inning. The Goldeyes elected to intentionally walk Juan Fernandez with a base open and the next batter, Dillon Thomas, took advantage of the opportunity to win it.

Thomas sent a base hit to right field to score the game-winning run to push Fargo-Moorhead to a 2-1 victory.

“I mean, they walked Juan Fernandez to get to me, which kind of fired me up and locked me in even more,” said Thomas on the walk-off winner. “Be careful what you ask for, type thing. I was just trying to get a good pitch to hit. I faced him a couple times earlier this year in Winnipeg. I knew he was going to come with the slider, so I just tried to get something up in the zone, something I could handle, and put a nice, easy swing on it.”

Manager Chris Coste added, “that’s one of the reasons why we bat him behind Juan Fernandez. Not for intentional walk purposes, but we know Juan Fernandez is gonna get hits, he’s gonna hit doubles, and Dillon Thomas, doesn’t matter if he’s facing a lefty, righty…If I’m the manager, I would’ve done exactly what their manager did, it was the right move. It didn’t work out, it worked out for us, but 100% the correct move. If there’s a guy we want up in that spot, a big leader like Dillon Thomas is best choice in the world.”

With the win, the RedHawks wrap up the six straight games vs. Winnipeg with a 4 and 2 mark and now sit above .500 on the year at 27 and 26.

With just four series’ remaining for the RedHawks before the all-star break, the team likes where they are at.

“You know, you never wanna say you’re satisfied,” said Coste. “But with the adversity we’ve dealt with: the injuries, and losing guys to Mexico, which other teams have dealt with, it’s not an excuse by any means, we were, the previous few weeks, just trying to keep our heads above water. We’ve made improvements. We’ve added three position players. The pitchers continue to do their thing, so I feel like we’re in a pretty good spot going forward. We’re never done rebuilding or improving the roster, but we really like the roster we have right now, and these nine games that we just finished were the nine games that kind of tell us how we’re going to be. We were 6-3 in these nine. I’ll take it.”

NEXT: Fargo-Moorhead hits the road again for three against Gary SouthShore from Tuesday July 8 through Thursday, July 10.