Mud Hens lose heartbreaker in extras

The Toledo Mud Hens fall to the Iowa Cubs 5-4 in extras on Tuesday at Principal Park in Des Moines Iowa to open up the road series.

Bryon Sammons got the start on the mound for game one for the Mud Hens.

The Mud Hens wasted no time getting the bats going as in the top of the first Wenceel Perez started things off with a single to right field. Perez then stole second and with a bad throw, he stole third as well. Justyn-Henry Malloy then walked to put runners on the corners for Jase Jung. Jung hit a sacrifice fly to right field to bring in Perez to give the Hens the early 1-0 lead. Keston Hiura then reached on a fielder's choice. With two men on Justice Bigbie lined out sharply to the second baseman.

Akil Baddoo then singled to left center to extend the Hens lead to 2-0. Eddy’s Leonard then singles on a soft ground ball to third base to load the bases up. Dillon Dingler then walked to draw in a run to make it 3-0 in favor of the Hens.

The bottom of the first saw Sammons get things going as he pitched a 1-2-3 inning.

The top of the third had Baddoo record his second hit of the day to lead off the inning. Leonard was hit by the pitch followed by Dingler drawing his second walk of the day. With the bases loaded Ryan Kriedler was able to hit into a fielder's choice which brought in Baddoo to make the lead 4-0 Toledo.

The bottom half of the third had Sammons give up his first hit of the game with a double to the left field wall. A walk and a single later brought the Cubs their first run of the game making it 4-1. Dingler behind the plate would end the inning on a throw-out at second base.

Mason Englert then replaced Sammons on the mound after a strong four innings pitched only allowing one run.
After 2 scoreless innings by Englert, Beau Brieske replaced him on the mound in the bottom of the seventh.

After pitching a scoreless seventh, Brieske came out in the eighth and gave up a walk and a one-out triple which scored the runner making it 4-2. Following that, a one-hop double to the wall scores the runner on third to make it a one-run game with the tying runner on second with just one out. Brieske would strike out the next batter but the next at-bat would give up the game-tying double to make it even at four apiece.

The top of the ninth had the Hens get a runner a board with one out but to no avail. In the bottom of the ninth, Trey Wingenter came in to pitch and was able to get a groundout to start the inning but a walk on the next batter. His defense had his back however as they were able to turn the double play to end the inning.

The extra-inning rule has the most recent out start on second base to start the inning. A strikeout started the inning but Baddoo was able to draw a walk with Leonard able to advance the runners 90 feet but a Dingler fly out to left ended the top half of the tenth.

In the bottom of the tenth, a pair of singles ended the ballgame with the Hens losing a heartbreaker to start the series.

The Mud Hens and Cubs face off again tomorrow for game two of this six-game series. First pitch is set for 1:08 p.m.

Notables:

Akil Baddoo (2-4, 1 RBI, 1 BB)

Bryan Sammons (4 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 6 K)