Ballou, Chiefs walk off over RailRiders

The Syracuse Chiefs beat the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders, 6-5, Saturday night at NBT Bank Stadium. Isaac Ballou hit a walkoff single in the tenth inning in just his third Triple-A game to lift the Chiefs over the 2015 I.L. North champs.

Syracuse (65-77) scored first in the bottom of the first inning against Scranton starter Brady Lail. Emmanuel Burriss led off the inning with a single to center field. With two outs, Matt Skole walked to put runners on first and second. Then, Scott Sizemore lined a two-out RBI single to left field to give Syracuse a 1-0 lead.

Scranton/Wilkes-Barre (80-62) got on the board with two runs in the top of the third inning against Taylor Hill. Kyle Higashioka singled to left field and Slade Heathcott walked with one out. After a fielder's choice by Ali Castillo, Ben Gamel lined a double to center field to plate Higashioka and Heathcott to give the RailRiders a 2-1 lead.

The Chiefs answered immediately in the bottom of the third inning with three runs against the RailRiders. Jason Martinson led off the inning with a solo home run deep over the left-field fence. With one out, Sizemore walked. Two batters later, Ricky Hague tripled to deep center field to plate Sizemore. Then, Steve Lerud scored Hague with an RBI single to right field.

The RailRiders rallied in the sixth and the seventh innings to square the score at five. Scranton/Wilkes-Barre scored two runs in the sixth and one in the seventh inning. In the sixth, Gamel led off the inning with a double and Aaron Judge singled to center to put runners on first and third with no outs. The next batter, Kyle Roller lined a single to center to plate Gamel and pull the RailRiders within two runs. Three batters later, with runners on first and third, Jake Cave hit an infield single to shortstop to pull Scranton/Wilkes-Barre within one.

In the seventh, Slade Heathcott doubled to lead off the inning against new Chiefs pitcher P.J. Walters. A batter later, Ali Castillo doubled home Heathcott to tie the game at five.

The game remained tied until the tenth. Jose Lozada worked a walk against Scranton/Wilkes-Barre reliever Mark Montgomery. Lozada moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Emmanuel Burriss. Ballou then came through, driving a ball over the head of Cave in center field, scoring Lozada and lifting the Chiefs.

Syracuse will play its penultimate game of the season Sunday night at 7:05 p.m. against Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. Taylor Jordan is slated to start for the Chiefs opposite Kyle Davies for the RailRiders.