Chicago Dogs rally in the ninth, win in the tenth

SIOUX CITY, Iowa - David Olmedo-Barrera mashed the game-tying homer to cap a four-run rally in the ninth and the Chicago Dogs added on three runs in the tenth to stun the Sioux City Explorers, 9-6, on Wednesday night.

Down 6-1 in the eighth, the Dogs stormed back for eight unanswered runs over the final three frames. The comeback secured Chicago's eleventh win in twelve games and fourth consecutive series win.

Early on, the Explorers struck first on back-to-back doubles off Dogs starter D.J. Snelten. Nate Samson drove in two, and on the next pitch Jose Sermo knocked in Samson to help the X's jump out to a quick 3-0 lead in the bottom of the third.

The Dogs got one back in the fifth when Gustavo Pierre doubled in Keon Barnum with two outs, who reached on a leadoff walk.

The Explorers responded by knocking in two runs with the bases loaded in the bottom of the fifth on a Dexture McCall single to extend their lead to four, and added another off the bat of second baseman Drew Stankiewicz to make it 6-1.

Chicago scored one more in the top of the eighth after Trey Vavra's 12-pitch at-bat resulted in a double to drive in Rey Gonzalez and cut the deficit to four. Gonzalez then came up in the ninth to drive in another run with a sacrifice fly to make it 6-3.

One pitch later, Olmedo-Barrera extended his hitting streak to 18 with a three-run home run with two outs off Sioux City reliever Matt Pobereyko (L, 1-3) to tie the game at six and force the bottom of the ninth.

Pierre drew his third in the ballgame with the bases loaded and one out in the tenth to push across the go-ahead run in Trey Vavra. Tony Rosselli then grounded into a fielder's choice to second that was botched by Sioux City, allowing both Victor Roache and Jordan Dean to score, making it 9-6 Dogs.

Carlos Zambrano and Rich Mascheri each threw a scoreless inning of relief, and Kyle Halbohn (W, 2-0) struck out five in a season-long three innings of no-hit work to help the Dogs push the game into extras, including a scoreless tenth to shut the door on the explorers and put a bow on the Dogs' fourth straight series win.