Paints Fall 7-6 in 15 Innings at West Virginia
June 16, 2018 - Prospect League (Prospect)
Chillicothe Paints News Release
BECKLEY, W.Va. - It took more than five hours for Friday's game to come to an end, and the Chillicothe Paints (9-5), presented by Adena Health System, wound up on the short end of the scoreboard against the West Virginia Miners (11-3), 7-6.
The Paints scored first - Andrew Czech hit a two-out RBI double to plate Chad Roberts in the top of the first.
The top offense in the Prospect League went to work in the bottom of the third, scoring four times on four hits to take a 4-1 lead.
Dan McCauley hit his first home run of the season to lead off the sixth inning and cut the deficit to 4-2.
The Paints gave up a run in the bottom of the sixth on a wild pitch to restore the three-run lead for the Miners at 5-2.
Gama Martinez hit a two-out, two-run single in the seventh to get the Paints within one at 5-4.
Back-to-back passed balls handed the Miners a run the bottom of the seventh to make it 6-4.
In the top of the eighth, Jake Gleason led off with a single, his second of three hits on the night, and later scored on a Drew DeVine double. DeVine scored to tie the game at six on a sacrifice fly by Czech.
That's when things got absurd.
With the game still tied at six in the top of the twelfth, with one on and one out, Czech hit a bouncer up the middle that was miraculously snagged by the pitcher while spinning around and blindly waving his glove in the area above the mound, he threw on to first for the second out. McCauley then singled to right field and West Virginia right fielder Frankie Jezioro made a perfect throw to cut down Connor Klemann at the plate to end the inning.
The Paints loaded the bases in the top of the 13th inning on two walks and an error. Klemann struck out swinging on a wild pitch that went to the backstop for out number one. On the play, Malik Jones tried to score from third, but the wild pitch bounced off the concrete-block backstop perfectly back to the catcher, who tagged out Jones for the second out - that's a double-play off of a wild pitch. Czech ended the inning with a groundout to second.
In the 15th inning, Chillicothe got a runner to first with one out and two batters later, it looked like Gleason had his third hit. Instead, the hard-hit ball ricocheted off the pitcher's back foot and bounced right to the first baseman, who tagged Gleason out to end the inning.
West Virginia finally ended the madness in the bottom of the 15th. Colby Johnson hit a seeing-eye single just over the bag at second and just out of the reach of Paints shortstop DeVine. Jezioro, who singled to lead off the inning scored to win the game for the Miners, 7-6.
Collin Clark (0-2) was the tough-luck loser. The left-hander pitched three innings in relief and allowed just one run on three hits.
Brandon Liskey (1-0) pitched the final four innings for West Virginia and didn't allow a run on two hits, walked three and struck out three.
R H E LOB
PAINTS 6 19 2 20
MINERS 7 16 3 12
Time of game: 5:05
The Paints and Miners play again Saturday at VA Memorial Stadium in Chillicothe. First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 p.m.
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Prospect League Stories from June 16, 2018
- Walk-Off Homers Lifts Aviators in Extras - Lafayette Aviators
- Paints Fall 7-6 in 15 Innings at West Virginia - Chillicothe Paints
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