Late Rally Not Enough for Indy as RailRiders Walk Off in 9th

MOOSIC, Pa. – The Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders overcame two late Indianapolis Indians rallies to even the series on Wednesday night at PNC Field, 6-5. T.J. Rumfield singled home two runs in the bottom of the ninth for the walk-off win.

Scranton/Wilkes-Barre (30-11, 68-45) entered the bottom of the ninth in a 5-4 deficit. With rain coming down, Eddy Yean entered and issued back-to-back walks to Ismael Munguia and Omar Martinez. Jorbit Vivas then bunted them both into scoring position to setup Rumfield’s winning knock.

Indianapolis (25-16, 67-48) rallied from a 3-1 deficit to briefly take a 4-3 lead in the top of the eighth, but the RailRiders tied it with a solo home run from Jose Rojas in the bottom half of the frame. Indy took advantage of the wet conditions in the top of the ninth to go back in front. Ji Hwan Bae reached on a fielder’s choice and advanced to third after back-to-back walks to Nick Yorke and Nick Solak. One out later, Matt Fraizer drew a bases-loaded free pass to force home Bae to give Indy a short-lived 5-4 advantage.

The Indians held an early lead thanks to a solo homer from Brett Sullivan in the second, but the SWB built a 3-1 lead in the fifth. Braden Shewmake led off with a walk and scored when Munguia tripled into the right-field corner. Martinez plated Munguia with a sacrifice fly. Vivas then singled and got to third on an error. He scored on a wild pitch for the final run of the rally.

SWB starter Allan Winans entered with an unblemished 10-0 record and 1.16 earned run average. He overcame early traffic on the bases to limit the Indians to one run over five innings. Harrison Cohen (W, 2-0) faced one batter and recorded the final out of the top of the ninth and was handed the win.

Hunter Barco worked four shutout innings as the Indy starter, his second straight such outing. He scattered three hits and struck out five. Eddie Yean (L, 6-5) took the loss after he pitched the ninth.

The six-game series is now even at one game apiece. SWB and Indy will square off on Thursday night at PNC Field in the third game of the series, first pitch is set for 6:35 PM.