Shane Matheny’s walk-off single in the bottom of the 10th sealed a 5-4 comeback victory for the Richmond Flying Squirrels against the Akron RubberDucks on Tuesday night at The Diamond.
The Flying Squirrels (13-8) scored runs in four straight innings to close out the win and have now won five consecutive games.
In the bottom of the 10th with two runners on, Matheny laced a ground ball off Nic Enright (Loss, 1-1) into right-center field and Jacob Heyward beat the throw to home plate that sent the Flying Squirrels to a 5-4 win.
Down by a run in the bottom of the ninth, Frankie Tostado rocketed an 0-2 pitch with two outs to the right field wall that plated Mike Gigliotti and tied the game, 4-4.
Richmond reliever Chris Wright (Win, 1-0) pitched a scoreless 10th inning after snagging a line drive hit at his chest and doubled off the Akron runner at second base.
Akron (11-11) took an early lead with three runs in the fourth inning against Richmond starter Kai-Wei Teng. Chris Roller lofted a sacrifice fly and Julian Escobedo lined a two-RBI double that put the RubberDucks ahead, 3-0.
Sean Roby broke the shutout in the fifth with an RBI single that scored Brandon Martorano from second base to make it 3-1.
Richmond punched another run in the seventh to cut the deficit to 3-2. Roby lined a single into right field, scoring Gigliotti from second. Roby went 3-for-4 with two RBIs.
Matheny had a home run call overturned to a double with two outs in the eighth inning. Simon Whiteman zipped an RBI single into left field that tied the game, 3-3. Each of the Flying Squirrels’ game-tying hits came with two outs.
With the bases loaded and one out in the ninth inning, Bo Naylor drew a walk against Wright that put the RubberDucks ahead, 4-3. Wright covered first base during an inning-ending double play to limit Akron to the single run.
Teng finished the night with a season-high nine strikeouts over 6.0 innings. Solomon Bates followed with 2.0 scoreless innings and three strikeouts.
Wednesday is Dog Adoption Night at The Diamond where fans are encouraged to help some local furry friends find their forever homes. It is also the second Reading Night of the year where kids who successfully completed the Go Nuts for Reading program will have the opportunity to participate in a pre-game parade presented by M&T Bank. The game will feature Wine & K-9s where five-dollar glasses of wine will be served from 5:30-7:30 p.m. Fans can also bring their dogs to the ballpark free of charge with a pet friendly seating section. First pitch is scheduled for 6:35 p.m. with gates opening at 5:30 p.m. Right-hander Bryan Brickhouse (0-1, 7.64) will start for Richmond opposed by right-hander Xzavion Curry (0-1, 5.94) for Akron.
Tickets are available online at SquirrelsBaseball.com/Tickets, by phone at 804-359-3866 or in person at the Flying Squirrels ticket office.
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Chris Graham
