The Danbury Westerners dropped an extra-inning thriller 7-6 to the Valley Blue Sox at McKenzie Stadium.
Danbury was looking for their third straight win and led into the top of the ninth inning before Valley recovered with a two-RBI single. Danbury regained the lead in the tenth and thought they had the final out to end the game, but the call was overturned. The momentum switched to Valley and they walked it off in the bottom half of the tenth on an outfield error.
Brian Hart hit an RBI single back up the middle to center field to give Valley [8-3] a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning. Valley added another run to their lead in the second when Brendan Hueth ran out an infield single that scored Jack Housinger.
After a Dylan Kim single to lead off the third, Matt Zaffino smoked his first home run of the season into the Valley bullpen in left field to tie the game at two.
The Blue Sox loaded the bases against Danbury [5-6] starter Angelo Tonas in the bottom of the third, but Tonas struck out Cristian Tejada to leave the runners stranded. Valley got revenge and regained the lead in the next inning when Travis Holt hit an RBI double that scored Brendan Hueth.
Cam Norgren sliced his first hit as a Westerner to the opposite field in left, which scored Dylan Kim and tied the game at 3 in the fifth. Connor Harding followed with an RBI single and Matt Zaffino scored on a throwing error to give Danbury a 5-3 lead. Danbury loaded the bases with two outs, but they were left stranded after a Dillon Lifrieri groundout.
The 5-3 score remained until the bottom of the ninth inning. With runners on second and third after a wild pitch, Garrett Schulz singled down the third base line and into left field, bringing both Valley runners home and tying the game.
Danbury struck first in the tenth with Jake Roper starting the inning on second base. Will Gersky moved Roper over to third with a sacrifice bunt and Dylan Kim brought Roper home with a sac fly to make the score 6-5.
The Blue Sox were down to their final out and it seemed over when Sebastian Murillo threw out Travis Holt at first. While Danbury celebrated, the three umpires had a conference and called Holt safe after ruling that Banks Griffith had been pulled off the bag by the throw. The next batter, Luke Franzoni, cracked a fly ball to left field where Matt Zaffino lost it in the lights and overran the route. Cristian Tejada and Travis Holt scored to give Valley the 7-6 victory after ten innings.
The winning pitcher for Valley was Daniel Padysak while the loss went to Danbury reliever Noah Jensen who pitched the last two innings.
The Westerners will host the Ocean State Waves tonight at 6:30 PM at Rogers Park. The game will be livestreamed on the NECBL Network.
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