Sosa Walks Off Cougars in 12th
Peoria, IL - The Peoria Chiefs rallied to tie the game in the bottom of the ninth and Edmundo Sosa's single walked off the Kane County Cougars 3-2 in 12 innings Thursday night. The win ends a 5-2 homestand and gives the Chiefs a perfect 7-0 season against the Cougars in Peoria. The Chiefs head to Wisconsin for a four-game series and road trip that starts Friday.
Chiefs starter Jake Woodford was activated from the disabled list earlier in the day and tossed three shutout innings in his first outing since the Midwest League All-Star Game. Steven Gallardo took over in the fourth inning and the first batter he faced, Collin Bray, launched a solo home run for a 1-0 Cougars lead. Kane County extended the lead to 2-0 in the seventh inning when Austin Byler hit a solo homer to left off Nick Frey.
Peoria got just one hit against former Chiefs pitcher Hector Hernandez as the 25-year-old delivered 5 1/3 shutout innings with two walks and four strikeouts. The Chiefs lost a runner on the bases between third and home to end the sixth before finally getting on the board in the seventh against Cody Clark. Brian O'Keefe hit his sixth home run of the season, a solo shot into the left-field berm, to cut the Kane County lead to 2-1. Chris Chinea and RJ Dennard each followed with singles but with two outs, Kody Bellow came out of the bullpen to strikeout Dylan Becker to end the inning.
The Chiefs were still down 2-1 going to the bottom of the ninth as Julio Perez took over on the mound for Kane County. O'Keefe drew a leadoff walk on a full-count pitch and moved to second on a wild pitch. With one out he went to third on another wild pitch and Craig Aikin pinch ran with Dennard at the plate. A third wild pitch allowed Aikin to score the tying run before Perez got out of the inning to send the game to extras.
Both teams left the bases loaded in the 10th inning. Kane County had first and third with no outs and loaded the bases on an intentional walk with two outs. Jorge Rodriguez gave way to Luke Harrison and the Cougars left them loaded with a groundout. The Chiefs got an infield single from Carlos Torres with one out and Sierra singled to right. With runners on the corners, Perez struck out Edmundo Sosa before walking Eli Alvarez to load the bases. The hard throwing right-hander then struck out Aikin to end the inning.
The Chiefs won the game in the 12th against reliever Mason McCullough. Sierra worked a two-out walk and stole second with Sosa at the plate. The Chiefs All-Star shortstop delivered a ground ball single to left and Sierra easily scored ahead of the throw for the 3-2 walkoff win.
Woodford struck out four and allowed just one hit over three shutout innings. Gallardo allowed one run on two hits while striking out two in one inning of work. Frey allowed one run on one hit and one walk while striking out three over three innings. Rodriguez allowed four hits over 2 2/3 shutout innings while walking one and striking out five. Harrison allowed one hit over 2 1/3 shutout innings while striking out two.
Notes… Harrison is the first pitcher to bat in a professional game in Dozer Park history as he struck out swinging to the end the 11th…The Chiefs gave up the DH when Chinea moved to catcher for O'Keefe after the ninth inning…The last Chiefs pitcher to bat was Chase Brookshire, who grounded out at Quad Cities on June 20, 2014…The previous time was April 30, 2000 when Matt Vincent walked against Lansing at Pete Vonachen Stadium after a brawl resulted in multiple ejections…Sierra had his team-leading 29th multi-hit game while Sosa now has 24…Becker started in left-field for the second game in a row after playing the infield in his first 35 games this season…The last four-game sweep for the Chiefs at Dozer Park was May 12-15, 2012 against Burlington…The Chiefs are tied for the MWL lead with 10 extra-inning games this season…The team record is 18, set in 2003…Peoria is 4-6 in extras, 2-3 at home…The last three extra-inning games have all gone at least 12 innings…The Chiefs have 11 last-at bat wins and three walk-off wins...Peoria won two games in the series when trailing after eight innings after being 1-29 before Monday…The Chiefs finish the season 7-0 against Kane County at home and have won 12 straight nine-inning home games against Kane County including last year's first round playoff opener…Overall the Chiefs are 9-1 against the Cougars in 2016 with three games left September 3-5 in Geneva…The Chiefs head to Appleton, Wisconsin to start a four-game series at 7:05 p.m. Friday against the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers…The Chiefs will start RH Sandy Alcantara (5-6, 4.40) against Rattlers LH Jake Drossner (2-5, 4.47)…The broadcast can be heard, starting with the Pre-Game Show at 6:50 p.m. on www.peoriachiefs.com/listenlive which also has downloads for a free app on the iPhone, iPad, Blackberry and Android…The broadcast is also available on the Peoria Chiefs Network in the Tune-In Radio App.