House, Lugnuts Swat Bees, 6-5
July 12, 2009 - Midwest League (MWL1)
Lansing Lugnuts News Release
BURLINGTON, Iowa - Given a reprieve thanks to a balk call, Chris House cracked a two-out, two-strike tie-breaking RBI double in the eighth inning to lift the Lansing Lugnuts (5-11; 31-54) over the Burlington Bees (7-9; 37-49), 6-5, on Sunday afternoon at Community Field.
With one out in the top of the eighth, Balbino Fuenmayor flared a single to shallow right field off of Bees reliever Eric Basurto (0-1). That capped a 4-for-4 game for Fuenmayor, who was removed for pinch-runner Tyler Pastornicky. A.J. Jimenez struck out swinging to bring up House, who promptly sent a bouncer back to Basurto for what was seemingly the final out. However, umpire Taro Hamano called Basurto for a balk before the pitch, negating the out and moving Pastornicky into scoring position.
House took advantage, driving a Basurto offering over the head of left fielder Shawn Griffin to give Lansing the lead. It was the Perth native's first extra-base hit of the season, doubling his RBI total.
Jonas Cuotto (3-4) earned the win with two innings of relief for Lansing and Matt Daly fired a scoreless ninth for his 16th save, closing out a rollercoaster game of lead-changes.
A pair of A.J. Jimenez RBIs gave the Lugnuts an early 2-0 lead, but Eric Hosmer supplied an RBI single in the fourth and a two-run single in the fifth to put Burlington up 3-2.
In the sixth, Fuenmayor knocked a three-run homer to give the Lugnuts back the lead... only to see the Bees tally twice in the home half to tie the game up at 5-5, setting up the game for its unexpected climax.
The win snapped a four-game losing streak for Lansing and sets up a rubber match in the three-game series. The season finale is set for Monday at 7:30 p.m. EDT, with right-hander Chris Holguin making his Lugnuts debut against Burlington right-hander Manauris Baez (3-4, 3.88).
Midwest League Stories from July 12, 2009
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