We struck first in the opening inning when Lugo reached base and Paris scored ahead of a two run homer by Matthew Lugo. Soler launched a two-run shot to left, giving us an early 2-0 advantage. The Orioles answered immediately in the second inning as Heston Kjerstad and Ryan O’Hearn set the table for Mayo before Basallo crushed a two run homer to right center, tying the game at 2-2.
Baltimore kept the pressure on in the third. After a leadoff walk and double put runners in scoring position, Basallo struck again launching his second two-run homer of the afternoon. Moments later, Alonso doubled home another run to cap a three-run inning and put the Orioles ahead 5-2.
Orioles pitching had settled in. Sugano worked through the early damage before Tyler Wells and the Baltimore bullpen held the Angels scoreless through the middle innings. We threatened in the fifth after a walk and an error put runners aboard, but failed to capitalize.
We finally broke through in the eighth against the Orioles bullpen. Paris reached base, Taylor worked a walk and we put together a rally with two outs. Kyren Paris delivered another clutch hit, scoring one run to make it 5-4. Moments later, Matthew Lugo lined a single to right that brought home both Zach Neto and Nolan Schanuel, completing the comeback and tying the game at 5-5.
The game remained tied at 5-5 into extra innings. In the top of the 10th, Baltimore capitalized on the automatic runner rule when Ryan O’Hearn scored on a Ramón Urías RBI single, giving the Orioles a 6-5 lead and putting us on the brink of defeat.
We answered immediately in the bottom half. Zach Neto struck out to begin the inning, but we caught a break when Keegan Akin committed a throwing error that allowed Peraza to score the tying run and moved Schanuel into scoring position. After a sacrifice fly moved runners around, O’Hoppe delivered the biggest hit of the game, beating out an infield single that brought Schanuel home with the walk-off run. 7-6 ANGELS!
