The Chillicothe Mudcats lost in walk-off fashion Saturday night at Phil Welch stadium, with a sacrifice fly from St. Joseph’s Logan Miller scoring the winning run, as the Mustangs defeated the Mudcats 7-6.
It was the Mudcats’ third defeat against the Mustangs this season, and it was most certainly the most crushing loss against St. Joseph this season, and the toughest loss of the season thus far.
The Mustangs walked the game off in comeback fashion, scoring 4 runs off of Mudcats closer Koby Linder after they trailed 6-3 going into the ninth inning. Linder allowed the comeback by giving up four hits in the ninth, complimented by a balk and an error by the Mudcats’ second baseman, Hunter Shoulta, one of the eight errors for the two teams combined on Saturday. St. Joseph tied it on the error by Shoulta before a Dom Felix hit sent the winning run to third base, which scored on Miller’s sacrifice fly.
The Mudcats got on the board in the first inning, plating one run on a throwing error from the St. Joseph catcher Felix as he attempted to catch another Mudcats runner stealing at 2nd base. St. Joseph responded in the second, though, as a two-RBI double from Carson Shrack gave the Mustangs a 2-1 advantage.
The Mudcats would snatch the lead back in the third inning off of a two-RBI double by Carlos Negron, and would add onto it in the fourth, with Drew Sanidad going from second base to home on an attempted double play the Mustangs, making the game 4-2.
St. Joseph would get one run back in the bottom of the sixth on a Mudcats error, but Chillicothe got a couple of fortunate runs in the eighth inning. Back-to-back fielding errors by St. Joseph’s third baseman, Mason Holton, allowed two unearned runs to score with two outs to make it 6-3. Holton finished with three fielding errors on the night, and the Mustangs had a total of five fielding errors.
That put the Mudcats in pole position to give St. Joseph their first loss of the season, but things fell apart in the ninth inning, as Linder allowed the four runs, two of them unearned. Mudcats starting pitcher Jordan Marlott, and relievers Drew Hnilo and Steven Escarcega pitched eight combined innings, allowing just three runs on six total hits.
The loss means that Chillicothe is now 4-5 on the season, and 3-5 in the MINK League. The Mudcats have lost their last five MINK League games, three of them to the Mustangs.
Chillicothe will have a chance to respond immediately tonight as they welcome the Mustangs, who are now 10-0 on the season, to Shaffer Park for a second matchup between the two rivals in as many days. First pitch is slate for 5:05 p.m. You can listen to the entire game tonight and every Mudcats game this season live on KCHI and on kchi.com.
