The Camden Redlegs are rolling into the playoffs after a late comeback and walk off win 5-4 against the Fairborn Athletics. Brad Clark started for the Redlegs and went the distance for his third win of the season.

The scoring started in the first when Caleb Rodriguez drew a walk, advanced to second on an error and scored on an RBI single by Brandon Howard giving the Redlegs a 1-0 lead. Clark rolled through the first 3 innings allowing only one hit and a walk. The A’s finally got on the board in the 4th when Brandon Kunkle doubled and eventually scored on a sacrifice fly by Kyle Combs to tie the game at 1.

The Redlegs reclaimed the lead in the 5th when Rodriguez drew another walk and an out later Howard delivered again with an RBI double to the left field wall giving the Redlegs a 2-1 advantage. The lead was short lived as two runs were plated in the top of the 6th with RBI singles from Kunkle and Jon Webb giving the A’s their first lead of the game at 3-2.

Burt Cox took over on the mound for the A’s in the bottom of the sixth. He recorded two quick outs before Jared Bradley bounced a single through the middle. Jake Robinson extended the two out rally with a single to put runners on 1st and 2nd. Rodriguez then hit a bullet into right field to bring Bradley around to tie the game at 3. Shaky defense gave the A’s the lead back in the top of the 7th when Joey Watson reached on an error and scored on another error on a fly ball that found the outfield grass giving back the 1 run advantage to the A’s, 4-3. Running on fumes, Clark was able to limit the damage to only one run and give the Redlegs a chance in the bottom of the 7th.

After a quick out to lead the 7th off, Steve Benthal worked a walk to get the tying run on base. Matt Mattice followed with a single to put runners on 1st and 2nd. John Long worked another walk to load the bases with one out. With the tying and winning runs in scoring position, Greg Lebouef stepped up to the plate. The A’s pitcher uncorked a wild pitch to start the at bat to bring the tying run home and advance the winning run to third. Lebouef just had to put the ball in play and the Redlegs would more than likely head home winners. He did just that with the next pitch, hitting a pop fly to the right side forcing the first baseman to turn his back to the plate with Mattice tagging up at third. Strategically, the A’s let the ball drop foul rather than risk a game ending sacrifice fly on a tough catch and throw. After a swing and a miss to put two strikes on him, Lebouef shortened his swing and hit a high chopper to the drawn in third baseman who could not corral it and fire to the plate in time to nail the speedy Mattice. With the exciting come from behind victory, Redlegs score keeper Laura Robinson summed it up best with a single word written in the scorebook after the final frame: “Yay!”

After struggling through the middle of the season, coach Jake Robinson declared that the team forget the losing streak and start the season over at 0-0. It struck a chord with them because since then they have run off 5 straight to bring the overall record close to .500 and a head of steam heading into the playoffs. They are looking to earn the first playoff series victory in team history against Miami Valley Bats on Saturday. Go Redlegs!

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