Tanabe Ties Game in 9th, Romero Wins it in 12th

Clinton, IA - Carlton Tanabe tied the game at 3-3 with a one-out sacrifice fly in the bottom of the ninth and Stefen Romero plated Jetsy Extrano for the game-winning run with a walk-off single to right-center in the 12th as the Clinton LumberKings defeated the Beloit Snappers 4-3 Tuesday night at Alliant Energy Field. The last at-bat victory was Clinton's second in the last three days.

Newest LumberKing Mike McGee singled with one out in the bottom of the ninth off Snappers' left-hander Jose Gonzalez, then moved to third on a two-base throwing error by shortstop Daniel Santana. Pinch-hitter Matt Browning, whose chopper to Santana proved tough to handle, advanced to second base. Tanabe then stepped up, fighting off several tough 1-2 pitches before lifting a ball deep to right-center field. McGee tagged and scored, tying the game at 3-3.

Browning would be left stranded as Robbie Anston struck out, however, and the game went on into extra innings. After being denied a chance to score with Extrano at third base and Mickey Wiswall at second with one out in the 10th, the Kings finally pushed the winner across in the bottom of the 12th inning. Facing left-hander Nelvin Fuentes, Extrano coaxed a walk on a low-and-in 3-2 pitch. Wiswall then put down a bunt that Fuentes fielded and threw wide of first-baseman Michael Gonzalez. That put the winning run at third base for Romero.

Romero lined Fuentes's 2-2 pitch out to right-center field out of the reach of center-fielder Wang-Wei Lin, scoring Extrano from third and sending a mob of his teammates racing out to the first-base bag. Just two days prior, the Kings had done the same to Anston following a ninth-inning walk-off single to beat Burlington. Romero finished the night 2-for-5 with the RBI.

Right-hander Tyler Burgoon (W, 4-3) had baserunners on in each of his four innings of relief including two in the top of the ninth, but turned in 4.0 scoreless innings and struck out two for the win. Left-hander Nate Reed also contributed 2-0 scoreless innings of relief of left-hander James Paxton.

Paxton issued wild pitches to score single runs in the second and fourth innings and then yielded a two-out RBI double to Jairo Perez scoring Daniel Ortiz for a 3-1 Beloit lead in the sixth, but the LumberKings' offense scored twice to take him off the hook for the loss.

Kalian Sams, who singled, stole two bases and scored on an Anthony Phillips groundout in the fifth inning, doubled home Tim Morris in the seventh to cut the deficit to 3-2. Sams finished 2-for-4 with a run scored and an RBI.

Gonzalez suffered his fifth blown save with an unearned run allowed over 2.1 innings for Beloit, while Fuentes (L, 1-1) took the loss with another unearned run. Snappers' starter, right-hander Adrian Salcedo gave up two runs on five hits over 6.2 innings.

Perez went 3-for-4 with an RBI and Ortiz 2-for-5 with two runs scored in the losing effort for the Snappers.

The LumberKings (3-2, 27-48) and Snappers (4-1, 42-33) wrap up the series with the rubber match at Alliant Energy Field tomorrow night, first pitch scheduled for 7:00 PM. Right-hander Jandy Sena (4-3, 3.69) starts for Clinton against Beloit left-hander Ryan O'Rourke (1-1, 1.64). Listen to the game on AM 1390 KCLN in Clinton or live on the web at 1390kcln.com.