The Scranton Wilkes-Barre RailRiders walked-off the Durham Bulls 5-4 on Thursday night at PNC Field. Ali Sánchez played hero with a moon shot to left field in the bottom of the ninth inning.
Once again, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre got on the board first in the first frame. Jasson Domínguez and Oswaldo Cabrera led off the contest with back-to-back singles. A pair of groundouts from Spencer Jones and Seth Brown pushed runners across for a 2-0 advantage.
Yankees No. 22 prospect Brendan Beck was stellar to start the contest sitting down the first eleven batters he faced and racking up six strikeouts.
In the fifth, Durham started gaining momentum. A ground rule double and a base hit put two in scoring position. Tampa Bay’s No. 3 prospect Jacob Melton stole home to score the Bulls first run of the game. A two-run two-bagger off the bat of Victor Mesa Jr. made it 3-2.
SWB rallied back in the next inning led off by a Paul DeJong double. Jonathan Ornelas followed with a single to put two aboard. A third straight knock from Domínguez plated DeJong to tie things up. Max Schuemann’s RBI single gave the RailRiders a 4-3 lead.
Reliever Angel Chivilli retired every hitter he faced to keep SWB on top. Yovanny Cruz (W, 3-0)(BS, 1) took on the ninth and walked Carson Williams to start the frame. Williams raced to third on a pickoff error from Cruz. A fielder’s choice allowed him to score to knot the contest up at four.
It wasn’t over as the home team had the bottom of the ninth to work with. Durham’s Chris Clark (L, 0-1) struck out the first two batters swinging. Down to their final out, Sánchez stepped up to the plate. After taking a first pitch strike, he hammered a curveball deep to left field to walk off the game 5-4.
Scranton/Wilkes-Barre continues the series with a doubleheader tomorrow against the Bulls. First pitch for game one is slated for 4:35 p.m. with Yankees No. 3 prospect Elmer Rodríguez on the mound. The game two starter is set to be Yankees No. 2 prospect Carlos Lagrange.