Ninth Inning Collapse Leads to Walk-Off Loss

The Hill City Howlers (18-32) took a 10th-inning walk-off loss to the Charleston RiverDogs (28-23) 8-7 Thursday night.

It felt like the Howlers’ game to win from the third inning on. After a six-spot that inning, Hill City led 7-4 and locked Charleston down until a fateful ninth inning. In the ninth, the RiverDogs tied the game, and then walked it off an inning later in the 10th.

The game began with action, as Hill City plated a run on a Yeiferth Castillo RBI single just a night after he drove in multiple runs. Charleston answered with three runs of its own in the bottom of the first, two of those coming off Cooper Flemming’s 10th home run of the season.

The RiverDogs grabbed another run in the second, but Hill City quickly bulldozed into the lead with its six-run third inning.

Alejandro Blasco opened it up with an RBI double, then Charleston catcher Yirer Garcia threw a ball into left field, allowing the runner on third, Jonathan Martinez, to score.

Next, Yeiferth Castillo did some more damage and drove in the tying run on another single to make it 4-4.

Two batters later, Johan Rodriguez smoked an opposite-field RBI double to give Hill City the lead.

Finally, Jhorvic Abreus put the cherry on top with a two-run homer he launched to right field, leaving the score 7-4 Howlers.

Pitching reigned for a while, as Hill City and Charleston traded zeros until the bottom of the ninth inning.

Andreimi Antunez cut the lead to two in the frame with an electrifying RBI triple, then Cooper Flemming brought him home on a sacrifice fly.

The final blow of the frame came when Taitn Gray was down to his last strike with two outs, and the designated hitter crushed a game-tying homer, which led to extra innings.

The Howlers went down quietly in the top of the 10th and failed to move ghost runner Deiten Lachance.

All the RiverDogs needed in the home half was a knock, and Alberth Palma delivered one to score Dean Moss and end the game.

The Howlers and RiverDogs move on to game four of the series tomorrow in Charleston. First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 EST and the stream can be found on Bally Live.