Merado Blasts Walk-Off
Published on July 14, 2009 under Northern League (NL)
Schaumburg Flyers News Release
SCHAUMBURG, IL-Richard Mercado hit a walk-off solo home run on the first pitch of the bottom of the tenth inning, his second home run of the night, as the Flyers beat the Winnipeg Goldeyes 8-7 in a marathon, back-and-forth thriller at Alexian Field.
For the second day in a row the Flyers got on the board first. Travis Ezi took a leadoff walk and didn't even have to steal second as Mercado belted his fifth home run of the season over the scoreboard in left field to make the score 2-0.
The Flyers added to their total in the second. The newest Flyer, John Toussas, the starting left fielder acquired today, singled in his first Flyers at-bat. TJ Wilson then cranked a triple to right-center scoring Toussas, who went 2-4 with two runs scored in his Flyers debut.
The Goldeyes cut the lead to one in the top of the third. Kevin West scored Cory Patton after Jeff Dunbar's throwing error to first. Brett Metheny then scored Josh Asanovich on an RBI groundout.
In the top of the fourth the Goldeyes battled back, taking a 4-3 lead thanks to an RBI single by Patton and a sacrifice fly by Asanovich. They extended that lead to 6-3 in the top of the sixth, continuing to get to Flyers' starter Dustin Glant. RBI singles by Adam Frost and Jeff DeSmidt made it a three-run lead.
It didn't take long for the Flyers to fight back. In the bottom of the sixth, the bottom of the order came up big. TJ Wilson's third hit of the game was an RBI single scoring Toussas. Ezi then roped an RBI double scoring Stephen Yoo. Mercado brought Wilson home with an RBI groundout, and Victor Ferrante joined the fun by driving in Ezi with a single to center field to retake the lead at 7-6.
Wilson finished the night 4-5 with two RBIs, his best night as a Flyer.
Tom Lyons pitched well in relief to give the Flyers the opportunity to make a comeback, pitching 2 2/3 shutout innings. But Cephas Howard then gave up a solo home run to Juan Diaz in the top of the ninth, tying the game 7-7.
Howard made up for it in the top of the 10th. The Goldeyes had runners on the corners with no one out. He struck out Patton and then Mercado tagged out Frost on an attempted squeeze. Howard finished the inning unscathed by inducing a fly out to left by Asanovich.
Mercado's homer to lead off the tenth was his sixth of the season. He finished the game going 3-6 with four RBIs. Howard collects the victory, improving to 3-1 on the year while Chris Homer gets the loss, dropping to 0-2.
Winnipeg has now lost seven in a row and falls to 28-20, while the Flyers have won six of eight and are now just three games back of the league-leading Goldeyes at 26-24.
The same two teams take the field tomorrow night with the first pitch at 7:05. Schaumburg sends LHP Alain Quijano (2-1, 4.10) to the mound to face Ace Walker (5-2, 2.26) of the Goldeyes.
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