RiverDogs walk off twice in one game

Yogi Berra would be proud because it was déjà vu all over again for the Charleston RiverDogs.

The Yankees' Class A affiliate celebrated a 4-3 win over Asheville on Wednesday, just like it did a night earlier. But it wasn't back-to-back victories that caused that familiar feeling for the RiverDogs.

On Tuesday, Charleston had runners on second and third with one out in the ninth. In his second South Atlantic League game, Donny Sands slapped a grounder to first baseman Josh Fuentes, who threw home in an attempt to get the lead runner. When Bo Thompson was called safe, Asheville manager Warren Schaeffer came out to argue. That's when plate umpire Ryan Powers threw his hands in the air to call the play dead [0:15-second mark on the below video].

One problem.

"[Powers] didn't realize that he called timeout," RiverDogs manager Luis Dorante said. "I didn't see it. I don't think anybody else saw it at the moment until we saw the video."

Without seeing time called, Austin Aune raced around from second to score and Powers called him safe. Walk-off No. 1 for the RiverDogs.

After the Tourists filed an official protest, South Atlantic League president Eric Krupa reviewed tape of the game and upheld it, forcing it to resume with the score tied, 3-3, Sands at first and Aune at third in the bottom of the ninth.

"It was weird, but we got to follow the rules," RiverDogs designated hitterIsaias Tejeda said. "So we said, 'All right, we're going to win this game. Just focus, have fun and let's go get it.'"

Dorante informed his players they would have to resume the game before starting Wednesday's regularly scheduled contest.

"There was some disagreements, not happy at all about the outcome, but I told them let's keep playing and see what happened," the skipper said. "I told them that I wasn't going to get mad and let's continue playing baseball. It is what it is. The league decided to play the game where we left it and nothing else we can do about it. We can't just go up there and not do our job and go through the motions and not do what you're supposed to do. So that's what I told them."

The RiverDogs couldn't bring Aune home once play resumed, so the game headed to extra innings. Asheville threatened in the 11th with singles from Shane Hoelscher and Dom Nuñez, but Brody Koerner (1-1) got Cesar Galvez to ground into an inning-ending double play.

Tejeda led off the bottom of the 11th, looking to put himself in scoring positon so his teammates could knock him in. Instead, he greeted James Lomangino (2-5) with his fifth homer of the season to give Charleston a protest-proof victory.

"It's amazing," said Tejeda, a 23-year-old native of the Dominican Republic. "We won the game, they fight, so we play it and we win."

Dorante said he didn't think Tejeda's drive was going to clear the fence, but it did, and he got to watch his team celebrate again.

"The reaction by the players, I think they really wanted to win that game after everything happened. [Tejeda] put a good swing on it and it went our way. It was exciting for them. We never gave up on it," the manager said. "I've never seen two walk-offs, two heroes in the same game, but we came though, so it's good to see the guys come through like that and continue playing baseball."