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The Amarillo Sox snapped a 4-game losing streak Tuesday with a 9-2 win over the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks in front of 2,040 fans at Amarillo National Bank Sox Stadium. The Sox used a 14-hit attack and a quality start from knuckleball pitcher Joe Zeller in the win.

Zeller needed just seven pitches to pitch a perfect first inning. Then in the bottom half of the first, the Sox did something they hadn’t done all season: score first. Josh Miller and Keith Brachold were retired to start the inning by reigning American Association Pitcher of the Year Taylor Stanton, but the Sox then strung together five straight singles by Joe Weik, Cory Patton, Jason Martin, Kevin Mahoney, and Lyndon Estill to grab a 3-0 lead.

Zeller and Stanton would settle into a pitchers’ duel from there, with neither allowing another run until the 6th inning. That inning would see Fargo-Moorhead find the scoreboard for the first time on back-to-back doubles by Sawyer Carroll and Zach Penprase, but Zeller would end the inning with a groundout and a pair of fly outs to leftfield.

Looking for insurance runs in the bottom of the 8th, the Sox found much more. Patton would lead off the inning with a ground rule double, and would advance to third on a sacrifice bunt by Martin. Martin would reach base on an error. That prompted the Redhawks to go to their bullpen, something they would have to do a total of three times in the inning. Mahoney gave the Sox their first run of the inning on an RBI double to make it 4-1 Amarillo. The Sox would then get a run when Martin scored on a passed ball, and Jeff Farnham hit an RBI single to score Mahoney. Keith Brachold would reach on a throwing error by the Redhawks, and Weik hit a two-run single to leftfield to make the score 9-1.

Celson Polanco came in to pitch the ninth, and allowed a run on four straight base runners with two outs before getting Ronnie Bourquin to ground out to end the ballgame. Amarillo improves to 2-4 on the season, and Zeller improves to 2-0 on the mound with a 3.75 ERA.