Jalin Flores’ three-run walk-off home run lifted the Chiefs past the Sky Carp, 14-13, in a slugfest Friday night at Dozer Park to secure Peoria’s third straight series victory.
Tre Richardson III finished the game 3-4 with five RBIs and his second two-run game of the series. Flores went 3-6 with four RBIs, three coming on the game winning swing in the ninth.
Peoria, now 28-27, owns a winning record for the first time since opening the season 1-0 on Opening Night.
Dillon Head homered in the first at-bat of the ballgame to give the Sky Carp an early 1-0 lead.
In the bottom of the first, Flores hit a fly ball that deflected off center fielder Colby Shade and bounced along the warning track for a triple, scoring Jesús Báez to tie the contest.
Richardson went deep for the ninth time in his last 15 games with a leadoff solo blast in the third inning to give the Chiefs a 2-1 lead.
Beloit regained the advantage in the fourth when Carlos Sanchez connected on a two-run homer before Jacob Jenkins-Cowart added a two-RBI double to make it 5-2.
Chiefs starter Leonel Sequera exited shortly after, allowing four earned runs on five hits over 3.1 innings, while walking three and striking out four.
Anyelo Encarnación and Sammy Hernandez pulled the Chiefs within one with back-to-back solo homers to begin the bottom of the fourth.
With two outs and a runner on third in the fifth inning, Peoria failed to escape the frame when Shade doubled in a run on a ball that fell into no man’s land in shallow center. Wilson Weber followed with an RBI triple on a fly ball to right field that José Suárez lost in the lights, putting Beloit in front 7-4.
Chase Jaworsky added another for the Sky Carp with a sacrifice fly in the sixth, bringing Brandon Compton home to extend the lead to 8-4.
The Chiefs fought back with four runs in the sixth to tie the game at 8-8. Hernandez singled in Suárez, Richardson hit his second home run of the night to score Hernandez and Jack Gurevitch tripled off the center-field wall to bring in Báez with the tying run.
Beloit answered with a four-run seventh. Sanchez hit his second long ball of the game, Head notched an RBI base hit, Jenkins-Cowart scored on a Dominic Freeberger wild pitch and Emilio Barreras drove in Head to make it 12-8.
After the first two Chiefs batters struck out to begin the bottom of the seventh, three straight walks loaded the bases for Richardson with two outs. The nine-hole hitter delivered, driving in two runs with a single on the ground up the middle to trim the deficit to 12-10.
Sanchez went deep for the third time to lead off the eighth, extending Beloit’s advantage to 13-10.
In the bottom of the eighth, Peoria earned a run back on an RBI double from Suárez, scoring Flores to shorten the deficit to 13-11. Beloit pitcher Juan Reynoso proceeded to walk the bases loaded before Luis Pino struck out to leave three runners stranded.
Peoria entered the bottom of the ninth trailing by two. Richardson drew a leadoff walk against Beloit reliever Luis De La Cruz. Báez flied out before Gurevitch walked to put runners on first and second with one out.
Flores then blasted a three-run walk-off home run to left-center field to cap the wild win that featured a combined 27 runs and 32 hits.
Flores has accounted for both walk-off wins for the Chiefs this season.
The Chiefs, undefeated in June, carry a four-game win streak into Saturday’s 7:05 p.m. matchup with the Sky Carp.
Tickets are available for purchase at PeoriaChiefs.com.
Fans can watch the game on MiLB.TV or the Bally Sports Live app and listen on PeoriaChiefs.com.