Jun 25, 2021 2 min read

TROY, N.Y. — Two former major leaguers played key roles Friday night as the Tri-City ValleyCats rallied late to beat the Wild Things 5-4 in 10 innings.

Washington led 4-2 in the eighth inning but Willy Garcia hit game-tying home run and Denis Phipps laced a game-winning RBI single in the 10th. Both Garcia and Phipps are former major leaguers.

Washington took a 2-0 lead in the third inning with solo home runs by Hector Roa and rookie Gabe Howell. Tri-City scored runs in its half of the third and fourth innings against Washington starter McKenzie Mills to knot the score at 2-2.

The Wild Things went back on top in the fifth inning as Connor Perry hit a one-out single and scored when Nick Ward belted a two-run homer down the right-field line, making the score 4-2.

Washington held the two-run lead until the bottom of the eighth. Washington reliever Ben Vicini, a rookie out of Seton Hill University who was pitching in only his third professional game, gave up a leadoff homer to 30-year-old Juan Silverio, who is in his 12th year of pro ball.

Then, with two outs, Garcia hit a game-tying solo homer inside the left-field foul pole off Vicini to tie the score at 4-4. Garcia spent seven years in the Pittsburgh Pirates’ farm system and played in 44 games in the major leagues in 2017 with the Chicago White Sox. Tri-City acquired Garcia in a trade last week with Schaumburg.

Neither team scored in the ninth inning and the game went to the tiebreaker — each half inning starts with a runner on second base — in the 10th.

Washington’s Grant Heyman advanced tiebreaker runner Andrew Sohn to third base with a groundout, but with the Tri-City infield drawn Joe Campagna grounded out to shortstop as Sohn held at third base. Roa then struck out to end the inning.

Phipps led off the bottom of the 10th with a single off Zach Strecker (0-2) that scored tiebreaker runner Nelson Molina. The 35-year-old Phipps is in his 15th season of pro baseball and played in eight games with the Cincinnati Reds in 2012.