Round Rock Drops 16-Inning Marathon on Wild Pitch, 3-2

Metairie, LA - Free baseball was required Friday night at Zephyr Field as the Round Rock Express (63-49) fell to the New Orleans Zephyrs (51-63) in the bottom of the 16th inning on a bases-loaded wild pitch, 3-2. The 16-inning test of endurance tied the Round Rock record for longest game in the Triple-A era.

Express RF Jared Hoying sent the E-Train in front with a solo shot in the third inning, taking Zephyrs starter Blake Logan to right field to make the score 1-0. The one-out blast gave Hoying his 19th of the season and his third of the year against New Orleans. Logan shook off the homer by collecting a fly out and pop out in order to end the top half of the third.

Round Rock 2B Tyler Pastornicky collected his first hit of the game with a lead-off double to start the fifth and made his way to third after 1B J.T. Wise flied out to right. Hoying stepped in the box for the second time and reached on a fielder's choice to score Pastornicky and extend the lead to 2-0. Hoying went on to steal his 13th bag of the season to help his pursuit of a consecutive 20-20 season, but was stranded on second after Logan struck out CF Leonys Martin and got SS Hanser Alberto to ground out.

E-Train starter Anthony Ranaudo carried his shutout bid into the bottom of the fifth and picked up back-to-back outs to put two in his pocket. The righty then gave up a single and issued his third walk of the game to put two on with two outs. The shutout came to an end one pitch later thanks to a RBI single from New Orleans RF Isaac Galloway that made it a one-run contest. Ranaudo recovered with his second K of the night.

Logan (0-0, 3.27) ended his night with six hits, two runs (two earned) and three strikeouts after throwing a 1-2-3 sixth and brought the New Orleans bats back out to press an attack on Ranaudo. The Round Rock starter crafted a ground out to start the inning, but saw the lead vanished on a Marcell Ozuna solo home run that evened the score at 2-2. A line out and a strikeout kept the game even as Ranaudo escaped the sixth without any further damage. Ranaudo (7-3, 3.77) went on to throw a shutout seventh and finished his outing with 7.0 innings pitched, five hits, two runs (two earned), three walks and three Ks.

RHP Phil Irwin made his second appearance of the season for Round Rock and retired the side in the bottom of the eighth with a strikeout, pop out and ground out.

The contest filled with drama as Express southpaw Alex Claudio entered for Irwin and gave up a two-out single that kept the walk-off notion alive for the Zephyrs. Claudio settled by striking out 3B Donovan Solano to send the game into extras.

Neither side budged in the 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th, or 15th inning as the two entered the 16th looking send the final blow. Round Rock came up empty in the top half of the inning and went to Will Lamb to extend the contest. Lamb began his outing with a fly out and a ground out, but yielded a walk and gave up a single to put two on with two outs. After a mound visit, Lamb walked Ozuna to load the bases. The third act of the series came to an end on a wild pitch from the Round Rock southpaw to give the Zephyrs their first victory of the series in walk-off fashion.

The 16-inning marathon tied an Express record for longest game in the Triple-A era, having lost 9-8 in 16 innings against Omaha on April 10, 2012, 9-8.

Round Rock and New Orleans continue the series tomorrow night at 6:00 p.m. as Express RHP Ross Wolf (10-6, 5.32) toes the rubber against a Zephyrs RHP Ivan Pineyro (NR).

For tickets and more information on the Express, visit www.RoundRockExpress.com or call (512) 255-2255. Follow the Express on Facebook and Twitter!