Washington Falls in Back-And-Forth Middle Game in 11 Innings
CRESTWOOD, Il. (July 31) - The Windy City ThunderBolts scored two runs in the bottom of the 11th inning after Washington had taken the lead via the international tie-breaker rule runner scoring in the top half, and won the middle game to even the series, 4-3.
Both starting pitchers, Washington's AJ Bogucki and Windy City's Tyler Thornton, received no decisions after fanning 10 apiece. Both set new career highs with that number of strikeouts in the game.
The home team started the scoring in the second inning, when Tyler Straub hit a fly ball to right field on which Taisei Fukuhara tagged and went to third. He'd score as Hector Roa's throw bounced to Shaine Hughes, and Hughes couldn't find it in time off the ricochet of his glove to get the out at home.
JR Davis knocked in a run with a base hit in the third to tie the game, as Davis put together a multi-hit performance in the loss. Windy City then took the lead on an RBI single by Jordan Swiss in the fourth, before seeing that evaporate eventually in the seventh, when Drew Bene tied the game with an infield RBI single.
It would stay tied at 2 until the 11th, when Hector Roa hit a ground ball towards the middle that ended up allowing Davis to score to make it 3-2 Washington. There was an error on the throw to first and Roa reached, with a collision with Straub. Roa left the game. Windy City then plated the tying run with an RBI double by Tyler Alama in the home half. Alamo scored on an error during a rundown between third and home on a fielder's choice, and Windy City walked off a winner to even the set.
Windy City and Washington will play a rubber game tomorrow at 8:05 p.m. ET. Michael Austin will take the hill and Windy City will counter with Kenny Mathews.
