The Rochester Red Wings (2-1) punched their ticket to the Triple-A National Championship Game after eliminating the Memphis Redbirds (1-2) with a 3-2 victory. Trailing 2-1 in the eighth inning, CF Andrew Pinckney ripped an RBI double to tie the game at two and scored the go-ahead run to clinch the series. Eight Red Wing pitchers combined for 11 strikeouts and just three hits allowed on the night, with RHP Clayton Beeter earning the victory.
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Rochester struck first in the opening frame, starting with a leadoff walk from SS Seaver King. 2B Trey Lipscomb followed with a single to move King to second. The Wings would hit into a double play that sent Lipscomb back to the dugout and allowed King to reach third. On the ensuing at-bat, it was DH Riley Adams recording the RBI single to score King and give the Red Wings an early 1-0 lead.
Both offenses would stay quiet until the bottom of the fifth, where LF Zach Levenson sent a 402-foot solo shot over the left-center wall for the first Memphis hit of the night. Levenson’s second home run of the series would even the score at one.
Memphis came out of the seventh-inning stretch with back-to-back doubles from 3B Ramon Mendoza and DH Bligh Madris, respectively. The knock from Madris would bring Mendoza home and give the Redbirds a 2-1 lead after seven innings of play.
After two outs to start the next inning, RF Leandro Pineda and CF Andrew Pinckney countered Memphis with back-to-back doubles of their own. Pineda scored from second off the double from Pinckney, who then scored a run of his own off an RBI single from 2B Cortland Lawson. Pinckney’s go-ahead run would stand as the game-winner, as the Red Wings stymied the Memphis offense to preserve the 3-2 victory.
Starting on the mound for Rochester in his first minor league postseason appearance was RHP Zak Kent. In 3.0 innings of work, Kent punched out three Redbirds and walked one, all without conceding a hit. RHP Max Kranick was first out of the bullpen, throwing one hitless inning with a strikeout. RHP Jake Bird came on for 0.1 innings that featured the Levenson home run, plus one walk. Coming on in relief was RHP Joe Glassey, tossing one strikeout in 0.2 innings of work. Up next on the hill was RHP Erick Mejia, who struck out all three batters faced in a flawless sixth inning. RHP Clayton Beeter entered for the seventh inning, where he struck out one and allowed one run on two hits. RHP Kyle Nicolas followed with a pair of strikeouts and walks each in his one full inning of work. Coming on to close was RHP Eddy Yean, who went three-up and three-down in the final frame to send Rochester to the Triple-A National Championship game.
The Rochester Red Wings Player of the Game is CF Andrew Pinckney. The Tuscaloosa, AL native knocked the latter of back-to-back doubles in the eighth inning to tie the game, and then scored the game-winning run on the next at-bat.
The Red Wings will face the winner of Oklahoma City and Las Vegas in the winner-take-all, Triple-A National Championship Game on Saturday at 10:05 p.m. in Las Vegas. It will be Rochester’s 22nd championship appearance, as they set their sights on an 11th title in franchise history and the first since 1997.
Find the box score attached HERE.
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