(Photo and story courtesy Augusta GreenJackets)
NORTH AUGUSTA – The Augusta GreenJackets (Atlanta Braves) recorded their second walk-off win of the season, as the Carolina Mudcats (Milwaukee Brewers) surrendered a two-out single to Tyler Collins in the 10th inning to score the winning run in a 7-6 game.
Augusta (30-32) matched their season high with 13 hits in the game, while the Mudcats (32-28) could not advance the ghost runner in extra innings before the eventual walk-off.
Carolina once again scored early to take the lead. With Adam Shoemaker on the mound for Augusta, the Mudcats got two hits on the first two pitches of the game to take a 1-0 lead, before a two-out RBI double made it 2-0 after half a frame. The GreenJackets got one run back, as Ethan Workinger doubled home Ambioris Tavarez to halve the deficit. In the second, Francisco Floyd roped a home run off the scoreboard to tie the contest at 2.
In the top of the third, the Mudcats once again strung hit after hit together, with seven men reaching base as three crossed the plate to make it 5-2. Shoemaker was able to strand the bases loaded, before escaping the fourth inning unscathed.
The GreenJackets began their comeback with the bases loaded in the bottom of the fifth, scoring a run on a wild pitch to make it a 5-3 game. In the sixth, the GreenJackets tied it up on a Justin Janas ground ball that led to an error, before Workinger lined a ball to left that deflected off the third baseman’s glove to score the tying run. In the seventh, Francisco Floyd beat out an infield single to drive in the go-ahead run.
Tyree Thompson entered the game in the fifth inning, and was brilliant, going a season-long four innings. Before he allowed the game tying run in the eighth, he had extended his streak of innings pitched without surrendering an earned run to 17. That https://makemyporkchop.com/streak lasted from the first week of May and spanned nine outings.
Thompson leads Augusta in opponent batting average. In his fourth inning of work, he allowed a leadoff double that would become the tying run. With the game tied at six after eight innings, Jason Franks entered and shut down the Mudcats in the ninth, before the GreenJackets went scoreless to send the game to extras.
In the top of the tenth, Franks struck out the first two batters he faced, before getting a soft groundout to retire the side in order and strand the ghost runner on second. With two outs and Jair Casanova on second, Tyler Collins lined a 3-1 pitch down the line in left field to score the winning run, before getting doused with the celebratory Powerade bath. The walk-off was the second of the season and first since May 10, when Jeremy Celedonio recorded a 10th inning single against Charleston.
Workinger now has 11 runs batted in on the season after recording a three-hit game today. Floyd also set a career high, reaching four times with three hits of his own. Franks picked up his first professional win out of the bullpen.
