LEXINGTON, Ky. - After scoring the winning run in one of the more improbable games imaginable,
Scott Kendrick found an even more impressively odd way to kick off a night cap.
Kendrick scored the last run of a four-plus hour, 16-15 Midway win, then opened the second game of a doubleheader with an inside-the-park grand slam, helping Midway complete a doubleheader baseball sweep of Siena Heights (Mich.) with an 11-1 win in game two.
Both games were played at Legends Park in Lexington, as Midway is still attempting to get its field in game shape following the major winter storms of a few weeks ago.
GAME ONE: MIDWAY 16, SIENA HEIGHTS 15 (10 INNINGS)
Slated to go seven innings, the opener started with a leadoff home run, then spent the ensuing 4 hours and 8 minutes being dragged kicking and screaming across the finish line before an extra-inning wild pitch gave the Eagles a walkoff win.
Midway, which had a dropped fly ball with two outs and a one-run lead in the top of the seventh and left eight runners on base in its following three at-bats, finally ended things in the bottom of the 10th, which started with a Kendrick single.
Two batters later,
Max Jewusiak singled which eventually led to runners being on second and third with two outs. Then, when a Nolan Gray pitch landed in the dirt, it rolled far enough behind the plate for Kendrick to get a strong enough jump to come home uncontested for the walk-off run, his fourth of the game.
Kendrick was one of several Eagles to have a big game, as he reached base five times via three hits and two walks.
The late-game struggles to score were not common before the extra innings, as Midway finished with 18 hits, its most in a game since belting 22
in a March 26, 2023 game against Rio Grande.
The Eagles scored at least one run in their first seven at-bats, including a four spot in the first and fourth innings.
The biggest of many standouts was
Taylor Voorhees, who finished 4-for-4 with five runs batted in. Voorhees had a three-run double in the first inning and RBI singles in both the fourth and fifth.
Sodai Takanaga and
Isaac Tencza both had three hits with Takanaga also adding three RBIs, none bigger than his RBI single that tied the game at 15 in the bottom of the seventh.
And while Eagle pitchers had their struggles, they also came up big late, holding the Saints scoreless in extra innings.
Chance Todd escaped a bases-loaded-one-out jam in the ninth, then gave way to
Matthew Poe, who threw a scoreless 10th for the win.
All told, the teams combined for 35 hits, six errors, 16 walks,10 hit batters and 30 men left on base.
GAME TWO: MIDWAY 11, SIENA HEIGHTS 1
While the drama wouldn't last as long in the second game, it started in equally bonkers fashion.
After the Saints left the bases loaded in the top half of the first inning, a
Bradey LaGreca single,
Pedro Morales double and
Colt Whaley walk in three-straight at-bats loaded the bases for Midway.
With two outs, Kendrick lined a ball in the gap that both the right and center fielder dove for unsuccessfully, sending it rolling towards the warning track. Given the green light after all his teammates had scored, Kendrick hoofed it home, just getting in before the tag of Siena Heights catcher Aidan Grinstead.
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The offensive onslaught would continue in second inning, when Jewusiak led off with a home run before Voorhees had a two-run triple in the third.
Kendrick, LaGreca and
Mark Harmon Jr. all had two hits in the game with Jewusiak adding another RBI on a sixth-inning sacrifice fly.
The offense was aided by four Eagle pitchers who combined for 14 strikeotus while scattering just five hits and one run.
Grant Stone got the win, escaping the bases-loaded, first-inning jam and striking out six over four innings to improve to 2-0 on the season.
Winners of four in a row, Midway improves to 6-3 on the season and will look to execute a four-game sweep of Siena Heights when the teams play twice more Saturday.
Game one will begin at noon with game two given an extraordinarily tentative start time of 2:30 p.m.
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