Hold My Log - 56.05 - The Walkoff

[7teen]

It wasn't a game for the faint of heart. It wasn't a game for the early to bed or early to rise either. But luckily it was a Friday night when Portland hosted San Fernando in a wild affair at the Trail in Multnomah. A game that started at 7:05 PT and ended 15 minutes past the stroke of midnight with the Lumberjacks joyously claiming a 9-8 victory over the Bears.

The game featured 12 pitchers, 6 bench guys, 27 hits, and a pair of errors. Portland claimed an early lead by jumping out 5-1 after 4 innings of play. Fuad Demirel helped kickstart the early lead with a solo blast to lead off the 3rd inning. However the lead was short lives as Christan Bourgos coughed up 4 runs in the 5th and the game was knotted back at 5-5. The teams swapped runs in the 7th and 8th and suddenly the game was heading to extra innings.

It took until the 4th extra frame before either team dented the scoreboard again and it appeared the Bears were headed to certain victory. Naoaki Kurioka hit a solo homerun with 1 out in the 13th then Marcello Castello followed that up with a solo homerun of his own. The back to back bombs gave San Fernando a 2 run cushion. A cushion they'd turn over to Phillippe Dumont to try and hold on to.

Dumont currently has an ERA over 21.00 and a WHIP approaching 3. So you can imagine how this plays out. He promptly surrendered a leadoff single to Carlos Flores. Flores then swiped second and advanced to 3rd on an strike 3 pitch to Joe Bradshaw. With 1 out in the inning and a runner at third, the game took a huge turn for the "WHAT THE FUCK!?" Sid Turcotte hit a ground ball to 2B. All the Bears 2B had to do was toss the ball to first, get the out, let the run score and Portland would have still trailed by a run. But he didn't. For some reason, the 2B came up firing HOME. Flores slid in safely and Turcotte touched 1B for the fielders choice. However, no out was recorded. For Portland, the tying run was now at first and the winning run at the plate.

You know what happens next.....

On a 1-0 pitch, Demirel connected on one flush to centerfield. The 29 year old outfielder flipped his bat straight into the air, pointed to his own dugout, shouted something inaudible to his dugout and trotted to first. The ball left the bat with a 106 exit velocity and landed 426 feet from home palte to CF. What was left of the over 48,000 fans in attendance that night were in full jubilee! Demirel was greeted at home plate by his teammates who showered him with water from water bottles and a gatorade bath.

"What an experience. What a night" said Demirel in the on-field post game interview. "Thanks to all the fans that stuck this one out with us. Maybe this will spark some excitement around this team and we can do big things this season."

[Jwalk100]

woootfuck-blonde.gif (58.79 KiB) Viewed 583 times