ApL Kingsport Axmen

E-Twins Win in Walk-Off Fashion

July 19, 2016 - Appalachian League (ApL)
Kingsport Axmen News Release


ELIZABETHTON, Tenn.--- The Kingsport Mets dropped Game 1 against the Elizabethton Twins Tuesday night on the final at-bat of the contest as Shane Carrier delivered a two-run walk off double to propel the E-Twins to a 9-8 victory in the late hours from Joe O'Brien Field.

Placido Torres (0-1) came onto pitch the bottom of the ninth inning after completing a scoreless eighth inning just moments before. The left-hander got off to a good start in the frame by striking out Caleb Hamilton, but then a defensive miscue from Walter Rasquin at second base allowed Andre Jernigan to reach first base with one away.

Luis Martinez would then fly out to Jose Medina in right field leaving Elizabethton only one more out to work with, still trailing by a run. Torres would then ensue a four-pitch walk to Ariel Montesino to put runners on first and second base. That was the last batter Torres would face before giving way to Ronald Guedez out of the bullpen.

After initially getting ahead of Carrier with two quick strikes, the left fielder drilled an 0-2 fastball to the top of the left-center field fence-allowing both Montesino and Jernigan to score easily. The walk off was the fourth win of the season for Elizabethton over Kingsport after the E-Twins swept the K-Mets in the season opening-series back on June 23-25 at Hunter Wright Stadium.

Before all the ninth inning fireworks, Kingsport was well in control of the game up until the bottom of the seventh inning. The visitors scored two runs in each of the first two innings to jump out to an early 4-0 lead through an inning and a half.

In the first inning, consecutive singles from Anthony Dimino and Rasquin would set the stage for Jose Medina's two-run single. Cecillio Aybar would then lead off the bottom of the second inning with a base-hit up the middle and would later come around to score on an RBI single from Rafael Ramirez who followed suit in the order.

Two batters later, and after Rameriz swiped both second and third base, Domino would bring in the fourth run of the contest for Kingsport with an RBI double.

Elizabethton would answer back in the bottom of the frame as Amarius Minier doubled off of Kingsport starter Jake Simon to begin the inning. A couple of batters later, Minier would come around to score off an RBI single from Jernigan to plate the first run of the contest for the E-Twins.

The home team would tack on another run in the bottom of the third inning when Lewin Diaz doubled in Alex Kirilloff who reached on a one-out single the batter before. Elizabethton had then cut the deficit in half at 4-2 after three innings of play.

The K-Mets would extend their lead to five runs in the frame that followed when Reed Gamache scored on a wild pitch from third base. With a runner on third base, Ian Strom would double to bring in Aybar and would later score himself off an RBI groundout from Rasquin two batters later. The score was 7-2 midway through the fourth inning and would stay that way for a few innings.

In the bottom of the sixth inning, Hamilton would walk and later come around to score on a wild pitch from Darwin Ramos, who entered the game in relief of Simon after walking the first two batters faced in the frame, and an RBI groundout from Carrier would bring another run into score with still only two outs in the inning. Kirilloff's RBI single a batter later would cut the K-Mets' lead to only two runs at 7-5 after six innings.

In the bottom of the seventh inning, Elizabethon would tie the ballgame with two runs off two hits. A one-out single from Mitchell Kranson and a walk from Hamilton who followed would put runners on first and second with only one out in the frame. Jernigan would then double in the pair to tie the game at 7-7 all through seven innings complete.

The score would remain the same until Kingsport broke the tie in what might have been the most bizarre inning the Appalachian League has had to offer so far into the 2016 season.

Rasquin led off the inning with a single to right field, his second hit of the day, and then advanced all the way to third on a two-base error from Robert Molina behind the plate on what was a sacrifice bunt attempt from Dionis Rodriguez.

The throw from Molina was short and to the right of the first base bag, causing the ball to go out of play and both base runners to move up 90 feet. With no outs in the top of the ninth inning, Kingsport had runners on third and first base with Median at the plate.

On a full-count pitch, Medina would hit a sharp groundball to Jernigan at second base. The second baseman immediately charged towards Rasquin, who was caught in no-man's land in-between third base and home plate. Jernigan would go on to tag out Rasquin racing back to third base and then follow up with a throw over to first base to try and force out Medina who was caught between first and second base.

After the first baseman Diaz charged Medina a few paces, he then threw over to Hamilton at third base to tag out Rodriguez, who was standing on second base before Medina was caught in the second run down of the play, for the second out of the inning. Prior to the pitch, the K-Mets had runners on second and third base with no outs but ended up having a man at second with two away when the play finally ended.

With all of that being said, Jeremy Wolf was still at the plate with a chance to bring in the go-ahead run from second base with two outs. A wild pitch from Johan Quezada on an 0-1 count allowed Medina to advance to third base and then another wild pitch two pitches later allowed Medina to cross home plate to put Kingsport up 8-7 with two outs.

That is how the stage was set for Carrier's walk-off heroics.

Torres took the loss for Kingsport after completing 1.2 innings of three-hit baseball. The lefty yielded two runs, none earned, and three strikeouts during the outing. Guedez was charged with the blown-save after coming into give up the walk-off double to Carrier.

Simon finished his fifth start of the season going five-plus innings of seven-hit baseball-giving up three earned runs with five strikeouts.

Quezada (2-1) picked up the win for Elizabethton after pitching innings eight and nine while yielding only one hit and one run which was unearned. The tall right-hander struck out two Mets during the stretch.

Medina finished the day 1-for-5 with two RBIs while Dimino pounded out a 3-for-4 outing with an RBI on the night. In his first game since being named the Appalachian League's Offensive Player of the Week, Rasquin turned in a two-hit day and with an RBI.

For Elizabethton, Jernigan led the way with three hits, an RBI and a walk while Kirilloff also turned in a three-hit day with an RBI. The night's hero for the E-Twins, Carrier, finished the contest 2-for-6 with three RBIs.

Game 2 of the series is scheduled for Wednesday night at 7 p.m. from Joe O'Brian Field. A live broadcast of the contest can be found at K-Mets.com or on the Tune In application with Eric Cain taking the air at 6:45 p.m. This story was not subject to the approval of the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues or its clubs.

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