BY JONATHAN SKUZA
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Andrew Knizner played hero Friday evening as he hit a walk-off two-run base hit to help the Red Wings snap their five game losing with a 15-14 extra innings victory over the Lehigh Valley IronPigs.
”I just happened to be the guy to get the hit at the end of the game,” Knizner said. “We had guys taking great at-bats all night. There’s a lot of players of the game. It just happen to be me to be the guy to get it done.”
Kinzer has been one of the hotter Red Wings at the plate to start the year hitting .418 after Friday’s contest and continued to play well when Rochester needed him the most.
”I think my goal is to have smart at-bats,” Knizner said. “I don’t even look at the numbers. I don’t care if I get a hit or get out. My goal is to go up there with a plan and approach for that at-bat. If I execute it, then I can live with it.”
Friday’s contest saw a rollercoaster of emotions for the Red Wings especially in the later innings.
Rochester got off to a hot start when they pushed across four runs in the first inning. Brady House got the inning started with an RBI double to score newly called-up Daylen Lile who led off the inning with a double of his own. Andrew Pinckney two batters later launched a 0-2 pitch to center field 411 feet for a two-run home run to put the Red Wings up by three. Robert Hassell III the next pitch launched his own home run to center field 431 feet to cap off the big inning for the Red Wings.
“He didn’t have an overpowering fastball, but he liked it at the top of the zone,” Hassell III said. “I saw he threw Pinckney At least one, so I was ready to go up there. He threw it a lot as a first pitch and when he threw it I was dead on.”
The four run first inning was the first time Rochester had pushed across a first inning run since April 19th when the Red Wings pushed across four runs against the Worcester Red Sox.
Lehigh Valley would get on the board in the third when Rafael Lantigua hit a 3-1 pitch to left center field for a solo home run.
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Rochester added some more runs on to their lead when Hassell III launched his second home run of the evening on an 0-2 pitch that went 436 feet to right center field for a two run round tripper.
“As soon as I got down two, I thought all right, let’s make sure if it’s a up in the zone fastball and he tries to play chess with me, I don’t change my approach,” Hassell III said.
The following inning Rochester would add two more runs onto its lead with a couple of errors and a Franchy Cordero base hit to help score House and Lile to make 8-1 Rochester.
Lehigh Valley made it a ballgame in the top of the seventh where they would send nine hitters to the dish and use six base hits to push across four runs to pull themselves within three.
Rochester would get two runs back in the bottom half of the inning with a Jackson Cluff RBI base hit and House’s second RBI double of the evening.
After pushing a cross a run in the eighth, Lehigh Valley struck big inning the ninth inning where they faced three different Red Wings bullpen arms and pushed across seven runs while sending 11 batters to the plate to take a 13-10 lead late and looked to close out another come from behind victory for the second time in three contests.
”For us, right now, we just haven’t been able to get those leverage spots and lock them down,” Red Wings manager Matthew LeCroy said. “We just haven’t to keep giving people opportunities and hopefully they’ll take it.”
Unlike Wednesday night where the Red Wings went down in order, they rallied in their half of the ninth to force free baseball at Innovative Field. After Juan Yepez tallied a single, Cluff launched the Red Wings fourth homer of the contest to pull them within a run. Rochester tied the game on Lehigh Valley’s third error of the contest that allowed Lile to score.
Lehigh Valley in extras scored its ghosts runner Erick Brito to put the pressure on the Red Wings in the bottom half of the inning. Knizner was up to the challenge and dealt the winning blow for Rochester to the 4,347 in attendance home happy with a victory in exciting fashion.
”He provides some leadership for us that we need with this young team,” LeCroy said. “He’s been a veteran guy that’s really got it going offensively.”
Rochester did receive a strong start from Michael Soroka who was pitching in Rochester on a Major League Rehab assignment. Soroka pitched five innings where he surrendered one run on four hits and three walks and struck out 11. Every inning during the right hander’s outing he recorded at least two strikeouts in each inning of work and it concluded with him striking out all nine IronPigs during the contest. It was the first time a Red Wings starter had done this since Wily Peralta did on May 10, 2023 against the Red Sox.
”I think first and foremost command was there,” Soroka said. “I was able to show all four pitches in the zone early on and kind of let them feel every one of them. Pitching gets easy after you can do that. Everything was pretty sharp. I just have to clean up the small things.”
”He had solid mix and command,” LeCroy said. “He took a really good offensive team and held them out of it for a bit. I’m sure when I have to report to the big league club, I’ll let them he’s ready to go.”
The two teams combined for 14 pitchers used in Friday’s contest with Lehigh Valley using six and Rochester using 8. Along with combining for 29 runs in the contest, the two teams combined for 37 hits with 22 of them coming from the Red Wings.
Rochester will look to build off the hard fought victory and will look to make tweaks so they can keep games under their control.
”We needed that win, really bad,” LeCroy said. “A lot of good things in the game. Just proud how we finished and came back. Hopefully this will give us a little boost to get going.”
The Rochester Red Wings (7-23) will continue their series with the Lehigh Valley IronPigs (22-9) on Saturday 1:05 p.m. as Rochester will send southpaw Andrew Alvarez (0-3, 3.95) to the mound while Lehigh Valley’s starter is to be announced.
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