The Muckdogs scored their first walk-off win of the season this year over the Williamsport Crosscutters on Thursday night. Batavia did not score a run until the eighth inning when they were trailing 5-0.
Williamsport picked up an early lead by scoring two runs in the top of the first off of Alberto Guerrero, who would not earn a decision in his five innings of work. Williamsport logged another run in the top of the fifth when Keudy Bocio would hit a single up the middle to make the score 3-0 in favor of the visitors.
Dylan Cyphert would come on in relief for the sixth inning but would yield two runs in total, both coming in the sixth inning. Afterward, Cyphert would lock in for the seventh inning and shut down the Crosscutters' lineup. For the eighth and ninth innings, Jeremy Ovalle would come on to keep Williamsport at bay while the offense went to work. In the bottom of the eighth, Brayan Hernandez would extend his welcome party to Batavia by ripping a leadoff double.
Not long after, Jerar Encarnacion would scorch one of his four singles to center field, that would score Hernandez for the first run of the night for Batavia. The Muckdogs would load the bases up later in the inning, and Albert Guaimaro got hit by a pitch to bring in one more run to make it 5-2. The last of the three runs came when Denis Karas hit a sac fly to score Encarnacion to make it a 5-3 game going into the ninth.
Ovalle only faced four batters in the top of the ninth to finish his job and not allow any more runs to score for the Crosscutters. In the bottom of the ninth, Batavia would find themselves down to their final strike with Demetrius Sims standing on first base. Then, Encarnacion smoked a ball to right field to start the rally. Sims moved to third on the play, and Encarnacion would advance to second on a sloppy throw into the infield. JD Osborne followed up with a clutch two-run single that would tie the game. Guaimaro drew a walk to advance Osborne to second, which caused Mike Jacobs to go into his bench and bring out Harrison White to pinch run for Osborne.
Sean Reynolds was the next batter, who was 0-2 up to that point in the game. He hit a single to right field that sent a sprinting White to the plate and an off-target throw sent the Muckdogs into a celebration with the 6-5 walk-off win.
Batavia will face Williamsport again Friday and Saturday for a 7:05 p.m. first pitch. The Muckdogs will look to break a streak of Crosscutter starters not allowing a run over the last five games.
