SL1 Carolina Mudcats

Mudcats Win 5-4

Published on July 28, 2009 under Southern League (SL1)
Carolina Mudcats News Release


Zebulon, NC --- In one of the more surreal games played in recent memory at Five County Stadium, a two-out, two-run double by Juan Francisco catapulted the Carolina Mudcats past the first-place Chattanooga Lookouts 5-4 in 13 innings at Five County Stadium on Tuesday night.

To do any justice to the oddities in the final five innings of the game, Carolina (13-19) led 3-1 in the top of the ninth with two outs and no one on. Phillipe Valiquette, who was given his first chance to close after Logan Ondrusek's promotion to Triple-A, was seconds away from a save when James Tomlin lifted a routine foul popup toward first base. Commence oddities. Logan Parker stood beneath the pop, but missed the ball entirely, which landed to his side. Tomlin then grounded a single to centerfield to keep the game alive. Justin Sellers, who hit just one home run all season in 91 games, drilled an Valiquette pitch for a game-tying home run.

The tie remained until the top of the 13th, when Jerry Gil (W, 2-1), who earned the victory in the game, walked five batters in a hitless frame, to force in the go-ahead run for the Lookouts (17-15).

Meanwhile, Carolina's offense was in a deep freeze. Lookouts relievers had retired 18 straight before the Mudcats' game-winning rally inexplicably began. With Chattanooga up 4-3, Victor Garate quickly retired two batters and was on the cusp of dealing the Mudcats a psychologically crushing defeat. However, Garate walked the next two hitters before facing Francisco. With a 2-2 count, Francisco drove a pitch inside the left field line to score Stephen Chapman and Jake Kahaulelio with the winning runs as the Mudcats closed to within four games of first place Chattanooga.

Chapman and Francisco hit home runs in the third inning to stake Matt Klinker to a 3-0 lead. Klinker permitted his only run in the fifth, when Tomlin scored from third on a Sellers grounder.

The 3-hour, 55-minute game was the second longest played this season by Carolina, coincidentally falling short of a 14-inning, 4-hour, 19-minute game on May 2nd against the same Lookouts.

Tom Cochran (3-3, 3.51) starts the middle game of the five-game series against James Adkins (5-6, 4.47) at 7:15 PM ET.

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Southern League Stories from July 28, 2009


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