Wild Things walk off with win over Windy City
Jimmy Yezzo and Sam Mende each scored on Danny Poma’s walk-off book-rule double with no outs in the bottom of the ninth inning as the Wild Things defeated Windy City 5-3 Saturday night at Consol Energy Park.
Washington overcame a 3-0 deficit, scoring a run in the sixth inning, two in the seventh and two in the ninth.
Yezzo led off the ninth with a double and moved to third base when Mende followed with a single on an 0-2 pitch. After Matt Peters was intentionally walked to load the bases, Poma delivered the game-winning hit to deep center field that bounced over the wall for the book-rule double. Though Yezzo scored the game-winning run on the play, because the ball bounced over the fence Mende also was credited with a run.
Matt Purnell (3-2) pitched 2 1/3 hitless innings in relief to get the win. Purnell struck out four and did not issue a walk.
Windy City leadoff hitter Coco Johnson began the game with a home run off Washington starter Jeremy Holcombe and the ThunderBolts added another run in the first inning on an RBI single by Ransom LaLonde. Jacob Tanis’ sacrifice fly in the sixth gave Windy City a three-run lead.
Austin Wobrock led off the bottom off the bottom of the sixth with a triple and scored when Maxx Garrett doubled. Walks to Yezzo and Mende in the seventh set up a run-scoring hit by Peters and a sacrifice fly by Wobrock that made it 3-3.
The Wild Things and ThunderBolts will meet today (2:30 p.m.) in the regular-season finale for both teams.