Jensen rocks Express with walk-off homer

Kyle Jensen blasted a walk-off home run in the bottom of the 11th inning, giving the New Orleans Zephyrs a 8-7 win over the Round Rock Express on Tuesday night.

The Zephyrs snapped a four-game losing skid and ended Round Rock's six-game winning streak.

With one out in the 11th, Jensen took Matt West (2-2) deep to right field for his team-leading 15th home run of the season, and second in as many nights. Jensen has now hit seven home runs in 14 games against Round Rock this season, while batting .389 with 18 RBI.

New Orleans was down 4-2 entering the eighth, when Mark Canha and Rob Brantly led off with consecutive singles. After a fielder's choice and a fly out, Josh Rodriguez laced an RBI single to right to bring the Z's within a run, and Juan Diaz followed with a single up the middle to even the score at 4-4.

Danny Black walked to load the bases for Jake Marisnick, who drilled a two-run single through the hole at short to give the Zephyrs the lead. A pop up on the infield by Zack Cox fell untouched between the mound and home plate, allowing Black to score from second for a three-run cushion.

But Round Rock responded in the top of the ninth against Z's closer Chaz Roe. Kensuke Tanaka crushed a three-run homer, his fourth of the season, to tie the game and send the game into extra innings. It was Roe's third blown save and second against the Express.

New Orleans trailed 1-0 on J.P. Arencibia's solo homer in the fourth, and were held hitless by Express starter Phil Irwin through the first five innings before sending eight batters to the plate in the sixth.

Marisnick got the Z's into the hit column with a leadoff single and advanced to third on a single to right by Cox. With one out, Brantly's blooper into shallow center fell between a trio of Round Rock players to score Marisnick, tying the game at 1-1.

A walk to Jensen loaded the bases, and Cox scored the go-ahead run when Jordany Valdespin hit a slow roller to shortstop for a fielder's choice. The lead was short-lived, however.

Z's starter Alex Sanabia had limited Round Rock to two hits through the first 6 1/3 innings until Bryan Petersen roped a one-out single and Ryan Rua and Jake Smolinski followed with consecutive RBI doubles to give the Express a 3-2 advantage and drive Sanabia from the game.

Round Rock added an insurance run in the inning when Tanaka legged out a potential double play grounder, allowing Smolinski to score from third.

Sanabia was charged with four runs and five hits with five strikeouts and one walk. Grant Dayton struck out four batters in 1 2/3 scoreless innings, and Bryan Evans (5-5) pitched a perfect top of the 11th to pick up the win.

The Zephyrs and Express meet in the third game of the four-game set on Wednesday at 7 p.m.