T

he Pensacola Blue Wahoos played one of the most memorable games in team history on Sunday night, scoring four runs in the bottom of the 12th inning to walk off the Birmingham Barons 13-12.

With Birmingham’s bullpen exhausted, Davis Bradshaw capped the 12th inning by reaching on a walk-off error from shortstop Moises Castillo to score the Norel González from third with the winning run. The rally came against knuckleballing position player J.J. Muno (L, 0-1) after the Barons had scored three in the top of the 12th inning against Sean Reynolds (W, 2-0).

After a 55-minute weather delay, the Blue Wahoos and Barons got underway for their series finale with Marlins rehabber Trevor Rogers on the mound. The lefty went 4.2 innings, allowing five runs on seven hits.

Birmingham’s D.J. Burt got the scoring started in the third with a solo homer, but Pensacola answered with four runs in the home half of the inning thanks to a solo homer from Thomas Jones and a two-run blast from González. The Barons answered back with three runs in the fourth to tie the game on the strength of a Castillo RBI double and Burt RBI single.

Raudy Read put the Barons ahead 5-4 in the fifth with a sacrifice fly, but the Blue Wahoos charged back in their half of the inning on a three-run double from Cobie Fletcher-Vance. Barons homers from Evan Skoug and Jose Rodriguez gave Birmingham an 8-7 edge in the sixth before Bubba Hollins lifted a game-tying sacrifice fly in the bottom of the inning.

An Oscar Colas solo homer put the Barons ahead once more in the seventh, but Hollins delivered again with an RBI single in the bottom of the eighth to bring home Nasim Nuñez to tie the game 9-9. José Devers tried to score from second on the Hollins single, but left fielder Craig Dedelow threw him out at the plate to preserve the tie game.

Dylan Bice threw a perfect top of the ninth, and the Blue Wahoos had Edgar Navarro on the ropes in the bottom of the inning as they loaded the bases with no outs. Navarro retired the next three batters, leaving the winning run at third and forcing extra innings.

Bice continued his stellar relief in the 10th and 11th, striking out six over 3.0 perfect innings while stranding the placed runners in both extra frames, but Pensacola was unable to score in their halves of the innings.

Reynolds allowed three runs in the top of the 12th on singles from Dedelow and Castillo, but the Blue Wahoos had arrived at the end of the Birmingham bullpen. Muno, a position player with eight prior pitching appearances, was tasked with protecting the 12-9 Barons lead. Singles from Jan Mercado, Devers and González tied the game before Muno got a pair of outs. With the bases loaded and two outs, Bradshaw hit a chopper to short that drew an off-target throw from Castillo to end the game.

At 4 hours and 14 minutes, it was the longest game of the year for Pensacola. Their 13 runs also marked a season high as they won their ninth walk-off of the season.

After an off day on Monday, the Blue Wahoos begin a six-game road series against the Mississippi Braves on Tuesday.

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