Roadrunners win with walk-off home run

EDINBURG — Gabe Memmert couldn’t have picked a better time to hit his first walk-off home run of his professional career.

With Edinburg down by one in the bottom of the 10th inning, Memmert hit a towering two-run shot that lifted the Roadrunners over the McAllen Thunder 6-5, breaking a two-game skid.

Memmert was 0-for-4 heading to the plate before his game-winning shot.

“It just goes to show you that nothing is over until it’s over,” Memmert said. “This is quite an experience. This is my first walk-off home run ever. I’m kinda flying high right now.”

Edinburg manager Steve Maddock is hoping that Friday’s game could give his team a little momentum boost as it travels to play first-place San Angelo.

“That (win) was big for us going into San Angelo,” Maddock said. “Hopefully this win will pull us back together and get us ready for San Angelo.”

The game went into extra innings after McAllen first baseman Alexis Hernandez tied things up on his first home run of the season in the top of the ninth.

The Thunder went up 5-4 in the 10th after Eric Eiland came into score off a throwing error by the Roadrunners second baseman, giving the McAllen a slight lead.

“I’m a little disappointed with this loss,” Thunder manager Matt Stark said. “Especially the way we lost tonight, but the thing I do like is that we played hard throughout the entire game. There was routine plays that we didn’t make. So when you don’t make those plays, it’s going to be more difficult to win the baseball game.”

With the Roadrunners leading by one in the top of the third, the Thunder were able to take the lead when Hernandez came in to score on a two-run blast from Zach Mandelblatt to put McAllen up by one. Later in the inning, Yaibel Tamayo came in to score on an RBI single from Wilson Batista to give the Thunder a 3-1 edge.

Edinburg struck back when Willington Dotel hit a standup double that brought in Osiel Flores from first and Stantrel Smith from second which tied the game up at three in the bottom of the fourth.

With the score tied at three in the bottom of the seventh, Edinburg catcher Brandon Wilkerson came in to score from first after errors were committed by both the Thunder left fielder and first baseman, giving the Roadrunners a 4-3 edge.