Loons Walk-off on Snappers in Wild Fashion

MIDLAND, MI - Jesmuel Valentin scored on a wild pitch in the bottom of the tenth inning to secure a 3-2 win for the Great Lakes Loons over the Beloit Snappers in Midwest League action on Wednesday evening at Dow Diamond.

Beloit falls back below .500 to 11-12 with the loss. Great Lakes is now 12-13 and can take the series with a victory tomorrow.   

The procession of events that led to the Loons' walk-off began with one out in the inning when reliever Drew Tyson (1-1) struck out Valentin, but Valentin was able to reach on a wild pitch. Malcom Holland followed with single and James Baldwin walked. Tyson then unleashed his second wild throw of the inning and Valentin trotted home with the game-winning run. Luis Meza (1-0) put up a scoreless top of the tenth for the win.

Through six frames, Great Lakes was only able to manage one hit, one walk and one run off starter Seth Streich. All three came in the first inning, as a sacrifice fly by Paul Hoenecke made the score 1-0. After that, Streich retired every batter he faced for the rest of the game, a total of 16 in a row before he was taken out. The Loons didn't get a ball out of the infield against him from the third inning on and he racked up seven strikeouts.

The Snappers evened the score in the second when a single by Ryan Mathews scored John Wooten. In the fifth, they strung together three straight singles, the final one, a run-scoring hit by Bruce Maxwell, to jump ahead 2-1.

That score still stood in the bottom of the eighth, but Great Lakes was able to tie it up. Jesus Valdez walked to start things off and was sacrificed to second. After a groundout moved Valdez to third, Baldwin tied the game with a single to right. Two innings later, the Loons would win it.   

RHP Vince Voiro (0-1, 6.94 ERA) will start the second game of this series for the Snappers on Thursday evening against RHP Ralston Cash (2-0, 2.45 ERA). The scheduled start time is 6:05pm central time.