The Wilson Warbirds used two homers to down the Hill City Howlers, 8-3, on Saturday evening.
Hill City looked sharp early in the ballgame, but the Warbirds continued to chip away at the Howlers lead, eventually overtaking them in the fifth inning and not looking back. Strong pitching performances from Hayden Robinson and Miqueas Mercedes carried them to the victory.
For the third straight game, the Howlers got on the board first. Two singles to start the frame allowed Riley Nelson to drive home the night’s first run on a groundout to first.
In the second, Jose Pirela mashed a leadoff home run to right field to extend the lead to two. The blast came off the bat at 108 mph and travelled 400 feet.
Wilson responded in the fourth, tying the game at two. Brailyn Antunez lined a double to left, scoring the first. Jose Anderson followed with an RBI single of his own to bring the game level at two.
In the fifth, a controversial play helped give the Warbirds a 3-2 advantage. A popup to shallow center was reeled in by Johan Rodriguez of the Howlers as Filippo Di Turi tagged and scored from third. Hill City appealed at third to see if the runner left early, the result of which left Erlin Cerda irked at the umpire pairing.
A two-run homer from Fréderi Montero in the seventh pushed Warbirds advantage to three, as they capitalized quickly off of Aaron Savary in relief.
The ninth inning saw the game slip away from the Howlers as Kevin Garcia drove home a run with an RBI single to left field. Then, after an extended injury delay, Handelfrey Encarnacion capitalized on a bit of rust to wallop a two-run homer to right field, extending the lead to 8-2.
A bases loaded walk from Jonathan Martinez allowed one more to score. Riley Nelson nearly extended the game with a rifled shot down the first base line, but was robbed of extra bases by the first baseman to end the night.
Hill City and Wilson will wrap up their season series with a Sunday matinee at City Stadium on Sunday with first pitch scheduled for 2 p.m. Tickets are available at hchowlers.com.