Sox Rally From Seven Down to Beat Sweets

WENATCHEE, WA - The AppleSox never led until the seventh inning, but they only needed one lead to defeat the Walla Walla Sweets, 11-10, on Sunday night at Paul Thomas Sr. Stadium.

Trailing by two in the seventh inning, Quinn Ayers lifted a two-run homer over the right-field fence to put the AppleSox in the lead for good. It was the cap on a spectacular day for Ayers in which he went 3-for-3 with two singles, a home run and a sacrifice fly to drive in three runs.

The Sox trailed by as many as seven runs after three innings, but refused to give up. They scored their first four runs in the fourth inning on four hits and an error. Hunter Montgomery singled and reached second on a miscue by the Sweets leftfielder then Dylan McPhillips hit his first of four singles to put runners at first and third. Ryan Altenberger sent a rocket up the middle and off the pitcher’s glove to score a run and Kody Darcy followed with a walk to load the bases. Ayers plated a run with sac fly in foul territory down the right-field line and Kolden drove in two runs with a single to cut the deficit to three.

The Sweets responded with a run in the top of the fifth, but the AppleSox countered with one of their own in the bottom of the inning. McPhillips singled with two outs and scored on a triple by Altenberger.

The back-and-forth scoring continued with the Sweets striking twice in top of the sixth to give themselves a 10-5 game. However, the AppleSox answered with their second four-run inning in the last three innings to make it a one-run game. Ayers singled and Kolden both reached on a single and a hit by pitch, respectively, to begin the inning. Two wild pitches scored Ayers and put Kolden at third. Tyler Detloff walked and Johnny Graham was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Cole McKenzie hit a sacrifice fly to score the second run of the inning, then Hunter Montgomery grounded out to drive in another run and McPhillips singled in the fourth run of the inning.

After Cameron Sommer (1-1) tossed a scoreless inning of relief, Darcy walked to set the stage for Ayers.

Landon Schirer struck out the first four batters that he faced to record 1-2-3 eighth and ninth innings for his third save of the season.

The AppleSox have Monday off, then face the Port Angeles Lefties from Tuesday through Thursday in Port Angeles. All three games are at 6:35 and can be heard on 93.9 Sunny FM or online on AppleSox.com.

Full boxscore: http://pointstreak.com/baseball/boxscore.html?gameid=501880

Click the link below to hear postgame reaction from Ayers, Schirer and head coach Kyle Krustangel with AppleSox broadcaster Joel Norman.