Fargo beats Calgary 5-4 in 14 innings

Published on June 9, 2006 under Northern League (NL)
Calgary Vipers News Release


A 14-inning game that lasted over four-and-a-half hours ended in disappointment for the Calgary Vipers as the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks managed to scrape a run across in the bottom of the 14th to take a 5-4 decision from the Vipers.

Quintin Oldenburg (1-4) eventually took the loss for Calgary after pitching four innings of relief. Calgary sent all but one reliever into the game, lefty Geoff Freeborn was the only one left in the bullpen at the end of the night.

Newly signed Vipers starter Danny Prata looked good in his first outing with the club, working six complete innings giving up four earned runs on nine hits; he walked two and struck out four RedHawks batters.

The Vipers put the first run up on the board in the top of the second inning when Carlos Duncan, who was hit by a pitch, came in to score on a Drew Miller fielder's choice.

Fargo-Moorhead evened it at 1-1 in the bottom of the second on Allen Mottram's fourth homerun of the year, a solo shot off Prata.

Josh Carter and Aaron McEachran both walked to lead off the third inning before a Carlos Duncan RBI single scored Carter to make it 2-1 for Calgary.

Duncan did some more damage in the fourth inning when he picked up his second and third RBI's of the night with a two-run single that scored Manabu Kuramochi and Carter. Duncan's second hit of the game also chased RedHawk's starter Shawn Ryan from the game.

Calgary took the 4-1 lead into the bottom of the sixth but Jesse Hoorelbeke cut the lead to two with another solo homerun off Prata.

In the seventh inning, Prata got into some trouble by loading the bases with none out. Ryokan Kobayashi came in to relieve Prata and picked up the first two outs of the inning while giving up just one run. Justin Dowdy was then brought in to record the final out of the inning, but his first pitch got by catcher Adam Shorsher and allowed Ruben Salazar to score from third and tie the game 4-4.

Neither team was able to score in the eighth or ninth inning, sending the game into extras.

The RedHawks threatened in the bottom of the tenth inning when Richard Austin led off with a triple to put Fargo-Moorhead 90-feet away from the win. Jon Huizinga though, struck out three straight batters to get out of it and keep the Vipers alive.

Calgary threatened in the both the 12th and 13th innings but couldn't capitalize either time with runners in scoring position.

Fargo-Moorhead was then able to load the bases in the bottom of the 14th with none out for Craig Ringe. Ringe came through for the RedHawks by sending a long fly ball to right field that got over Josh Carter and scored the winning run from third.

Calgary and Fargo-Moorhead will meet for the second game of the series, Saturday night at 6:05 PM in Fargo. Evan Greusel (0-0) will get his second start of the year for the Vipers. Calgary will return home on Monday to open a series against the Edmonton Cracker-Cats.

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Northern League Stories from June 9, 2006


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