Flagg Walkoff Completes Perfect Homestand
June 29, 2012 - Frontier League (FL)
Traverse City Beach Bums News Release
TRAVERSE CITY, MI - Jeff Flagg hit a three-run, walkoff homer in the bottom the of the ninth to propel the Traverse City Beach Bums to a 7-4 win over the Washington Wild Things in front of a season high crowd of 5,137 at Wuerfel Park on a FANtastic Fireworks Friday.
The win gave the Beach Bums a perfect 6-0 homestand as Traverse City completed sweeps of both London and Washington. It was also the 20th win of the month for TC, breaking the record for wins in a single month, previously set in August, 2007.
With the game tied at 4-4 heading into the bottom of the ninth, Brian Heere got things started for the Beach Bums with an infield single. After a perfect sacrifice bunt by Ryan Still, Jose Vargas was intentionally walked to set up a double play. Chase Burch came up and struck out for the second out of the inning. That brought up Flagg who unloaded on a Steven Grife offering, clearing the perimeter fence to start the fireworks display at Wuerfel Park a little bit early.
In addition to ending the game with a homer, Traverse City bookended the contest with long balls as after Heere led off the first inning with a double, Vargas homered in his third straight game, his tenth of the year, to put TC up 2-0.
Meanwhile, through the first five innings, Bennett Whitmore was throwing zeroes at the Wild Things in every category, retiring the first 15 batters of the game. In the sixth, Doug Thennis would lead off with a walk and move to third on a single and a wild pitch before scoring on a Tanner Leighton groundout to cut the Beach Bums lead to 2-1.
The two teams would trade runs in the bottom of the sixth and top of the seventh as Traverse City would score on a pair of wild pitches bringing home Flagg and Kyle Colligan who had doubled and walked respectively. Washington would get their runs on an RBI groundout by Taylor Oldham and a sac fly by Thennis, scoring Andrew Heck and Rick Devereaux.
Carrying the 4-3 lead into the ninth, the Beach Bums were unable to hang on to it as Washington would load the bases with nobody out. After a force at home on a ground ball by Jonathan Erb recorded the first out, Thennis grounded a ball through the left side to score Devereaux to tie the game. Scott Mueller would get through the inning with no further damage, striking out Matt McConnell and getting Robbie Garvey to fly out to center, setting up Flagg's heroics.
Mueller (1-1) picked up the win for Traverse City while Steven Grife (0-2) took the loss for Washington. Whitmore gave the Beach Bums six innings of one hit, one run ball on the mound while Vargas finished just a double shy of the cycle at the plate.
Traverse City now heads to Schaumburg for a first place showdown with the Boomers. Brooks Belter (4-0, 2.92) gets the game one start for the Beach Bums against Robbie Penny (2-3, 4.73) for Schaumburg. First pitch on Saturday is set for 7:00 p.m. with coverage on Sunny Country 101.9 beginning at 6:40.
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