Mudville 9 Walk-Off In 7-6 Win

VISALIA - Trailing 6-5 in the bottom of the 9th, Jake Lamb laced a double down the right field line with the bases loaded to score two and vault the Rawhide to their 12th straight home win. Each team hit three home runs and exchanged runs throughout the game. But it would be the Rawhide who were left standing at the end of the day as the victors, as they beat the Modesto Nuts 7-6 at Rawhide Ballpark on Wednesday afternoon.

Rawhide starter Andrew Chafin pitched 5.0 innings, giving up three earned runs on seven hits while walking two and striking out one Nuts batter. Chafin may not have had his best stuff on Wednesday afternoon, but the Rawhide offense backed him up each time Modesto put a dent in the scoreboard. 

Modesto got on the board early when Ryan Casteel lined an RBI-double off the left field wall to plate Zach Osborne, giving the Nuts a 1-0 lead in the top of the 1st. 

The Rawhide would respond however in the bottom of the frame. After a lead off walk to Evan Marzilli and a base hit from Jake Lamb, Yazy Arbelo hammered his third homerun of the season to left field off Tyler Anderson to give the Rawhide a 3-1 lead.  

Modesto continued to put the pressure on Rawhide starter Andrew Chafin in the top of the 3rd inning. Taylor Featherston flied a one-out solo homerun to left field to cut the score to 3-2. Ryan Casteel would double to left the very next at-bat and advanced to third on a wild pitch from Chafin. That allowed David Kandilas to hit a sacrifice fly to right field to tie the game at 3-3. 

But once again the Rawhide would respond in the bottom of the frame and reclaim the lead. Gerson Montilla led off the inning with a solo homerun to left field off Anderson, making it 4-3 Rawhide. Michael Perez went deep as well, hitting his fourth homerun of the season to right field, extending the Rawhide lead to 5-3.

David Kandilas hit a two-out homerun in the top of the 7th off of Rawhide reliever Conrad Flynn, cutting the Rawhide lead to 5-4.

Jake Barrett (1-0) was summoned in the top of the 9th for his 8th save opportunity of the season, but the first time in 2013, Barrett faltered. With one on and two out, Ryan Casteel blasted a homerun to deep left to give the Nuts a 6-5 lead. It was the first earned runs for Barrett on the season and his first blown save.

But once again, the Rawhide offense would have an answer. Matt Helm led off the inning with a walk and two batters later, Raul Navarro singled to put two runners on. Montilla took a two-out walk to load the bases, which set the stage for Jake Lamb. Lamb doubled down the right field line off Scott Oberg (1-3) to plate Helm and Navarro, vaulting the Rawhide to a 7-6 win. The Rawhide have now won 12 straight games at home and pull to within 1.5 games of the division lead. 

The Rawhide will go for the series sweep of Modesto tomorrow night at 7 pm. Get your tickets at the Rawhide ticket office or online at RawhideBaseball.com.