Braves Walk Off With Two-Run Home Run, Win 5-3 in 11

DANVILLE, VA -  As the rain began to come down at American Legion Post 325 Field in the bottom of the eleventh inning against the Princeton Rays, Justin Ellison sent a walk off homerun to deep right field to give the D-Braves a 5-3 win. Starter Ryan Clark went 4 2/3 innings, giving up four hits and one earned run and one unearned run along with five strikeouts. Reliever Steve Borkowski came on in the top of the eleventh inning to pitch 1/3 of an inning to record his second win of the season.

The Rays scored runs in the third, fifth, and ninth innings to take a 3-0 lead going into the bottom half of the ninth inning. In the top of the third inning, Peter Maris sent a two out single up the middle for a base hit. Rays center fielder, Zac Law, would double to right field scoring Maris to put the Rays up early 1-0.

Princeton would add yet another run in the top of the fifth inning to make the score 2-0. Rays second baseman Blake Butera would reach on a throwing error by Kurt Hoekstra to keep the inning alive for Princeton. The next batter, Maris, would then triple down the line in right field scoring Butera.

In the top of the ninth inning, the Rays would add yet another run as left fielder Landon Cray would walk to lead off the inning. Two batters later, catcher David Rodriguez singled to right field scoring Cray, who had advanced to third on a wild pitch.

The D-Braves answered with three unearned runs in the bottom of the ninth to extend the game into extra innings. Lead-off batter Kurt Hoekstra reached base on an error by Butera. Trey Keegan then singled up the middle to put runners on first and second with two outs in the inning. Ray Didder would single to center field scoring Hoekstra, while Keegan would advance to third. Juan Yepez would then single to center field and the ball was misplayed, which resulted in an error and two runs scored by the D-Braves to tie the game at 3-3.

In the bottom of the eleventh inning, Keegan would single to center field to lead off the inning. Didder would then advance Keegan to second on a sacrifice bunt to put the winning run at second base with Justin Ellison on deck. Ellison, who pinch ran for Yepez in the bottom of the ninth inning blasted a two-run walk off home run to right field to give the D-Braves a 5-3 win in the opening game of the four game series.

The D-Braves will now travel to Princeton for a double header tomorrow followed by the fourth game of the series on Wednesday. Danville will return to American Legion Post 325 Field on Friday August 14 for a double header against the Burlington Royals. The first game will start at 5 PM with the second game following 30 minutes later.