Zephyrs win on wild pitch in 16th inning

Reid Brignac scored on a wild pitch with the bases loaded and two outs in the bottom of the 16th inning, giving the New Orleans Zephyrs a 3-2 win over the Round Rock Express on Friday night.

At 16 innings, the Z's equaled their longest game in Zephyr Field history, having previously played 16 innings against Fresno in 2003, Memphis in 2006 and Tucson in 2012.

The game had been tied 2-2 since the sixth inning until Brignac drew a two-out walk from Will Lamb in the 16th. Hitless through his first six at-bats, Vinny Rottino singled to left to extend his hitting streak to 11 games.

Lamb (2-2) walked Marcell Ozuna to load the bases, and his 2-1 pitch to Kila Ka'aihue bounced away from catcher Brett Nicholas, allowing Brignac to scamper home with the winning run.

One night after the Express hit five home runs, they used the long ball again to jump on top in the third inning when Jared Hoying drilled a solo shot. It was Hoying's 19th home run of the year, fifth-most in the Pacific Coast League.

Hoying doubled the Round Rock lead to 2-0 in the fifth. Tyler Pastornicky led off with a double, advanced to third on a fly out to right, and scored on Hoying's grounder to short by eluding the tag of Zephyrs catcher Jhonatan Solano.

New Orleans strung together a two-out rally in the bottom of the frame to cut the deficit in half. Solano singled up the middle and Austin Nola walked to put a runner in scoring position for Isaac Galloway, who blooped a single to center to score Solano.

An inning later, Marcell Ozuna swatted his fifth home run deep over the left-center field fence to tie the game against former LSU ace Anthony Ranaudo.

Ranaudo limited the Zephyrs to two runs and five hits in seven innings with three strikeouts and three walks, but did not factor into the decision.

Blake Logan, making his second start since debuting at Triple-A last weekend, pitched a career-high six innings and held the Express to two runs and six hits. He struck out three and did not issue a walk.

The Zephyrs' bullpen took over in the seventh and kept Round Rock hitless for six innings. Scott McGough walked one batter in two innings, and Nick Wittgren retired all nine batters he faced, including three via strikeout.

Travis Blackley allowed a leadoff double to J.T. Wise in the 13th, but Wise was thrown out by Galloway while attempting to advance to third on a fly out. Blackley (4-5) gave up two hits in five shutout innings to pick up the victory.

Coming off their fifth game of at least 13 innings this season, the Z's continue the series against Round Rock on Saturday at 6 p.m.