IL St. Paul Saints

Late Game Heroics as Jeffers Wins It with Walk-Off Homer, 2-1

Published on May 15, 2021 under International League (IL)
St. Paul Saints News Release


ST. PAUL, MN - It was late game heroics all over the Minnesota sports landscape on Saturday night. The Twins scored four in the eighth inning to come from behind and win. The United scored a game winning goal four minutes into extra time. And the St. Paul Saints received their own incredible finish. Ryan Jeffers crushed a 99 mile per hour fastball over the right field wall for a walk-off home run giving the Saints a 2-1 victory over the Iowa Cubs Saturday night at CHS Field in front of 4,129. The win provides the Saints with their first back-to-back victories of the season and are now 5-6.

With the game tied at one in the top of the ninth inning, Ian Miller reached on a one out infield single to short. He stole second and advanced to third when Trayce Thompson's grounder was mishandled by Nick Gordon at short. Gordon made up for it on the very next batter when Abiatall Avelino hit a ground ball up the middle that Gordon dove for, snagged, and from his stomach flipped to second. Yelstin Encarnacion then fired to first for the inning ending double play.

That momentum carried over into the bottom of the ninth inning when Jeffers took the first pitch he saw from Robert Stock and crushed it over the right field wall for the first walk-off win for the Saints.

It was a pitcher's duel all night. The Saints got the first run off Major League rehabber Shelby Miller. JT Riddle reached on a fielding error by the first baseman, Nick Martini. Riddle stole second and scored on an RBI single from Keon Broxton giving the Saints a 1-0 lead.

The I-Cubs tied it in the fourth when Maritni led off with a double. He was still there with two outs, but Ian Miller tied it up with an RBI single to left.

The Saints pitching staff was outstanding. Charlie Barnes got the start and went 4.0 innings allowing one run on three hits while walking three and striking out four. He managed to pitch out of situations with runners in scoring position in all four innings.

Luke Farrell was incredible, going 2.0 perfect innings and striking out five.

Cody Stashak picked up where Farrell left off and allowed just one hit and struck out one in his 1.1 innings of work while Juan Minaya finished it off with 1.2 innings of shutout relief.

The same two teams meet in the finale of the six-game series on Sunday afternoon at 2:05 p.m. The Saints send RHP Randy Dobnak (0-1, 5.40) to the mound and the I-Cubs are TBA. The game can be seen on 45TV and heard on KFAN Plus, 96.7 FM.

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International League Stories from May 15, 2021


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