The Chillicothe Mudcats walk off the Clarinda A’s in a thriller on Saturday evening at Shaffer Park in Chillicothe.
The scoring got started early in Saturday’s game with the A’s posting two first inning runs which were boosted by a couple of Mudcat errors, 2-0 Clarinda after the top of the first.
The Mudcats responded right back with a bottom of the first which was also supported by a Clarinda error, 2-1 Clarinda after the first inning.
The scoreboard stayed quiet until the bottom of the fifth when the Mudcats slapped a crooked number on the board. Tatsuki Yoshikawa scored on a wild pitch to tie it at 2. Nishiki Iwai gave the Mudcats the lead after he scored on a Cole Adair groundout, and Jevon Raboy smacked a single into left field scoring Ryder McClain to make it 4-2 after five innings.
The game stayed as a 4-2 Mudcat lead into the top of the ninth inning. However, Clarinda rallied to keep the game alive. The A’s got two ninth inning runs against Mudcat closer Logan Arbuckle to tie it at 4-4. Arbuckle was one out away from getting the save, but Sean Bazmore tied it up with a base hit that scored Grant Lokken.
The Mudcats couldn’t score in the ninth, so off to extras we went on Saturday evening in Chillicothe.
The A’s took a top of the tenth inning lead on a base hit from Andrew Young scoring Cole Baumgart, 5-4 Clarinda heading into the Mudcat tenth.
The Mudcats got early traffic from a hit-by-pitch off the shoulder of JP Gonzalez, and a base hit from Alejandro Somaza. Runners were on the corners with no one out. Canon Creason tied the game bringing home JP Gonzalez on a fielder’s choice, 5-5 with one out and a runner on first which was Creason, himself. Tatsuki Yoshikawa laid down a beautiful bunt to advance Creason to second, and bring up Nishiki Iwai with two outs and a runner on second. A wild pitch allowed Creason to advance up to third during Iwai’s at-bat. Then, on a one ball, two strike count, Nishiki Iwai poked a base hit down the right field line, and the Mudcats walked it off on Saturday evening!
The final score was 6-5 in favor of the Mudcats over the Clarinda A’s.
The Mudcats improved to 9-17 on the season and beat the first place A’s for the second time in five days.
The Mudcats are off on Sunday before returning to Shaffer Park on Monday to take on the St. Joseph Mustangs. First pitch on Monday is at 7:00 p.m.