17's Top 17: No.'s 4-6

On the field in 2017, the Beloit Snappers had countless memorable performances throughout the entire season. The Snappers will release a list of "17's Top 17" to reveal the best moments from the past season. This countdown will include entire games and snippets of the Snappers 36th season of professional baseball in Beloit.
Home runs change momentum like nothing else. Out of the Snappers 84 total roundtrippers in 2017, three of them fueled the squad's best ball of the summer.

4. J.C. Rodriguez walk-off home run completes sweep of Cubs

The Snappers had nine total walk-off wins in 2017, but only one of them was an electrifying walk-off home run on July 24 against South Bend. Beloit had already won the first two games of the series as the game-winner by Rodriguez sealed the sweep with a high drive over the left field wall.
South Bend led the Snappers 2-0, 3-2, and 6-3 but the game was quickly tied each time the Cubs went ahead. Collin Theroux hit a two-run double to even the game 2-2 in the fourth inning when South Bend took the early lead in the second. South Bend responded with a run in the fifth, answered by the Snappers, and both squads exchanged three-run sixth innings. Rodriguez led off the sixth with a double and scored one of those three runs that helped set up his heroic moment in the ninth.
5. Edwin Diaz's inside-the-park home run
During a whacky 10-9 game on a Sunday afternoon at Pohlman Field, Edwin Diaz circled the bases for an inside-the-park home run on July 9 against Kane County. The Cougars scored seven runs to take what appeared to be a commanding lead 10-2 lead in the sixth before Diaz cracked his round tripper in the bottom half of the inning. He hit the ball sharply to left field and Raymel Flores of the Cougars misjudged his route as the ball rolled near the warning track, and Diaz circled the bases for a two-run homer. The Snappers scored four in the seventh and one in the eighth and even had the tying run in scoring position but eventually dropped the one-run contest.
6. Luis Barrera's go-ahead, pinch-hit home run in Clinton
The Snappers began the second half on the road in Clinton and Peoria with a 6-2 record on that trip. Much of the momentum was built on a ninth-inning, pinch-hit home run by Luis Barrera that turned out to be a game-winner for the Snappers on June 25 in Clinton. Barrera's bomb was the only pinch-hit homer of 2017.