Howlers Walk-Off Fayetteville in Ten Innings

The Hill City Howlers used extra innings to knock off the Fayetteville Woodpeckers, 3-2 (10), on Friday evening.

Yerlin Luis notched the team’s sixth walk-off win of the season. In addition, the Howlers improved to 4-0 in extra innings games, despite only collecting four hits.

A two-run home run from Nehomar Ochoa Jr. opened the scoring in the first inning for Fayetteville. Zibin worked his way out of trouble in the second, keeping it a 2-0 game.

In the fourth inning, the Howlers were still without a hit until Jose Pirea drove a ball over the right-center field wall for a solo home run, trimming the deficit to one.

Yeiferth Castillo picked up a single in the seventh inning. After swiping second, two wild pitches allowed him to scamper home and tie the game at two.

The Howlers brought the winning run into scoring position in the ninth inning but left him stranded at second to send us to extras.

Angel Perez was as tough as nails as he struck out three in the tenth with two runners aboard to give Hill City a chance to win in the bottom of the inning.

Fayetteville intentionally walked Johan Rodriguez before a wild pitch allowed him and the ghost runner at second, Yaikel Mijarez, to advance 90 feet. Yerlin Luis lofted a ball to left center which Anthony Huezo tracked down. Mijarez tagged from third, scored easily, and provided Luis with his second walk-off hit of the season.

Hill City and Fayetteville battle once again on Saturday evening with first pitch at 6:30 p.m. at City Stadium. Tickets are available at hchowlers.com.