Conrad Slams the 51s to Victory in the 9th

Las Vegas 51s @ Fresno Grizzlies

June 21, 2015

Rainy Lara @ Asher Wojciechowski

Teams	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
Las Vegas	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	4		4	9	0
Fresno	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	0	0		2	8	0

W: Bradford (2-2, 3.74 ERA); L: Stoffel (3-1, 5.40 ERA)

MiLB.com Boxscore

The Highlights:

Pitchers

Rainy Lara (6.30 ERA) – 5 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 5 BB, 2 SO, 83 Pitches (46 Strikes), 6 GO: 4 FO

Chase Huchingson (0.00 ERA) – 1.2 IP, H, 2 SO, HBP, 1 GO: 1 FO

John Church (3.96 ERA) – 0.1 IP, H, 1 IR – 0 S

Scott Rice – 0 IP, H, BB, 1 IR – 0 S

Chase Bradford – 2 IP, H, 3 SO, 3 GO, 3 IR – 0 S

Batters

Daniel Muno – 1-5, SO

Johnny Monell – 1-4

Alex Castellanos – 1-4, 2 SO

Kirk Nieuwenhuis – 2-4, R, 2B (2)

Brandon Allen – 1-4, 2B (14), SO

Travis Taijeron – 1-3, R, 2B (8), HBP, SO

Wilfredo Tovar – 1-3

Brooks Conrad – 1-1, R, HR (5), 4 RBI (31)

Recap

            Brooks Conrad got to live out a dream most baseball fans have at some point in their young life, coming up with the bases loaded and two outs in the 9^th inning, with his team trailing. It was on the road, so he didn’t give his team the walk-off win, but he still came through with a grand slam that bounced off the scoreboard. The 51s got a wildly effective start from Rainy Lara, and some great work out of the pen from the Chase Bros., Huchingson and Bradford, to finish the series with a split in Fresno.

            Lara issued 4 walks over the first 2 innings, but stranded 2 runners in the 1^st and then caught a break on a liner with the bases loaded in the 2^nd, as it landed in Allen’s glove, and he ran to 1B to complete the double play. He’d work a perfect frame in the 3^rd and 5^th innings, but ran into some two out trouble in the 4^th. With a runner on 1^st, Tyler Heineman doubled to RF to drive him home. Two batters later, Tony Kemp (who made some awesome plays in CF and at 2B) singled home the second run of the frame.

            In the 8^th, Chase Bradford came into a bases loaded, 0 outs situation, and he’d work out of it on a strikeout and two groundouts. The bases became loaded on a walk and two singles, the second of which led to manager Wally Backman’s ejection. Alex Presley hit a high chopper to Reynolds, who charged and made a nice throw to 1B, possibly beating the runner. Scott Rice thought so, as he started to head to 1B to argue, but the ump told him not to come, and the combined events set off Wally Backman. He charged out of the dugout and it looked like a big argument might ensue, but the ump was quick to ring him up, tossing him almost instantly. Backman still got in his two cents, and apparently wanted everyone watching to know his message to the ump (see below).

            Check out scoring highlights from the 9^th inning and more below. The 51s have Monday off as they travel to Salt Lake, with Steven Matz scheduled to pitch Tuesday night at 9:05 PM.

Scoring Highlights

            Travis Taijeron hit a two out double in the 7^th.

            Kirk Nieuwenhuis sparked the 9^th inning rally with a one out double lined into CF. A walk to Anthony Recker and HBP of Travis Taijeron loaded the bases, and the 51s sent up pinch-hitter Brooks Conrad with two outs and the game on the line. Conrad came through HUGE!

Bonus

Tony Kemp had a nice defensive weekend for the Grizzlies, crossing over the bag to rob Reynolds here.





This play led to Wally's ejection, and reaction, which is an instant classic.

Pitcher Coverage

Chase Huchingson had 2 strikeouts

Chase Bradford had 3 strikeouts, including the final two batters of the game

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