Daring Urias Helps TinCaps To Walk-Off Win [VIDEO]
FORT WAYNE – On “What Could’ve Been Night?” Night at Parkview Field, there would be no second-guessing TinCaps manager Francisco Morales on Friday. While the TinCaps re-branded themselves as the Fort Wayne Octane for the evening, second baseman Luis Urias delivered a walk-off suicide-squeeze bunt in the bottom of the ninth inning to defeat the Great Lakes Loons, 8-7. Fort Wayne is 15-5 over its last 20 games and alone in first place in the Midwest League Eastern Division.
The TinCaps loaded the bases with nobody out in the frame. Then with one out, Morales called for the bunt. Edwin Moreno took off from third base while Luis De Paula (L, 0-1) threw home and Urias rolled one perfectly up the third-base line.
Fort Wayne (11-5, 43-41) has won three games in a row and is off to an 8-2 start in the month of July.
Urias’ thrilling week with the TinCaps continued. In his debut on Monday against South Bend, the 18-year-old from Mexico tallied three hits and four runs, and then clinched Fort Wayne’s fifth walk-off win of the season on Friday.
The game featured two ties and four lead changes. It started in the second inning when Trae Santos scored the first run to give the home team a 1-0 edge.
Justin Chigbogu launched a home run over the center field fence in the fourth frame to tie it up.
The TinCaps scored twice in the bottom of the fourth to make it 3-1 and a Moreno two-run single in the fifth put the home team ahead 5-1.
Great Lakes (5-11, 43-41), however, erupted for five runs in the fifth to take a 6-5 lead. From there, it was a seesaw game. The TinCaps scored twice in the seventh to regain a 7-6 edge only to see the Loons equalize in the eighth on another solo shot by Chigbogu.
While Fort Wayne starter Dinelson Lamet allowed just a run in five innings, it was eventually Colby Blueberg (W, 2-1) who earned the victory with a scoreless ninth.
The Octane name was an ode to Fort Wayne’s connection with the automobile industry. Sylvanus Bowser invented the gas pump here in 1885. When the organization decided to change its name from the Wizards in 2008, “Octane” finished as a runner-up to “TinCaps.”
The TinCaps are back in action against the Loons on Saturday night at 7:05. Michael Kelly (4-1, 4.08) is set to start against Trevor Oaks (4-5, 2.76). The game can be heard on ESPN Radio 1380, TinCaps.com, and the TuneIn Radio app, and watched on Comcast Network 81.