Warriors rally ends with walk off win over Flames

Published 11:25 am Friday, April 7, 2023

By Allen LaMountain

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After losing a six run early lead to the Tri-Cities Flames, Happy Valley rallied in the seventh for an 8-7 win on Thursday afternoon at Cannon-Gouge Park. HV (4-5 overall) snapped a four game losing streak with the win.
The Warriors led 1-0 after one inning and scored five more runs in the second on three walks and Reagan Ensor delivered a two run single and Drew Blevins had a two RBI hit as well as HV built a 6-0 advantage.
“We made things happen in that inning,” Warriors head coach Nathaniel Treadway said. “We took advantage of our opportunities and Pedro (Colunga) was throwing well on the mound.”
The Flames got on the board in the top of the fourth with Rylan Jesse opening the stanza with a free pass and John Melendez crushed a Colunga pitch over the fence in leftfield for a two run homer to cut the HV lead to 6-2.
In the last of the fourth Cade Kendall rapped an RBI infield single after a pair of walks put Warriors runners in scoring position. Kendall’s run scoring hit made it 7-2 in favor of the Warriors but Colunga ran into some trouble with walks in the fifth.
Greg Vissar struck a one out double to centerfield and Carson Shah walked. Jesse then collected an RBI single and Melendez was given an intentional walk to load the bases and with Keith Austin at the plate Colunga unleashed a wild pitch to produce a run and Austin’s ground ball brought home another.
Another wild pitch saw the Flames score once again and close to 7-6. The Warriors went down in the last of the fifth and Kendall came on in relief of Colunga to start the sixth frame. Kendall put out the Flames in the sixth and HV also did not push a run across leading to an eventful seventh inning.
Vissar walked to open the seventh and Shah singled to plate Vissar after he stole second base but Kendall bore down and retired the Flames without further damage setting up the late rally for HV.
Nakota Graham was plunked by Flames reliever Austin and Ty Johnson walked. Colunga singled to load the bases and Ensor delivered a sharp single to centerfield to push home the winning run.
“Kendall filled the strike zone and we played good defense behind him,” Treadway said. “Colunga had good success early and he pitched well and we had a nice rally to win it. So overall it’s a good win and it’s good to see us stay focused.”
Happy Valley 8-7
Tri-Cities 000 240 1 – 7 7
Happy Valley 150 100 1 – 8 7
W – Kendall L – Austin
HR – Melendez 2B – Vissar

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