PORTLAND – One team tied the game with a home run in the ninth inning. The other tied it with a homer in the 10th.

Finally, two hits by the Portland Sea Dogs and two Trenton Thunder errors combined for an 11th-inning, 7-6 walk-off win for Portland on Sunday before 6,656 at Hadlock Field.

Portland outfielder Matt Sheely led off the 11th with a bunt single. He raced to second base when catcher Rene Rivera tried to make a play at first, throwing the ball into right field.

Jose Iglesias grounded a single into left field. Manager Arnie Beyeler was holding Sheely at third, but left fielder Damon Sublett dropped the ball while taking it from his glove, and Sheely raced home, sliding across with the winning run.

“(Beyeler) was holding me up, so I turned around to look for the ball,” Sheely said. “I saw the left fielder bobbled it. (Beyeler) is waving me in, so I took off.”

Portland (60-66) finished the home stand at 2-4. Trenton is 76-51.

“It was nice to take advantage of someone else’s (mistakes) instead of them always taking advantage of ours,” Beyeler said.

Earlier, Nate Spears tied the game in the bottom of the 10th with his 15th home run. That followed Matt Cusick’s game-tying home run for Trenton off reliever Ryne Lawson, with one out in the ninth inning.

Portland outhit Trenton, 18-8. Iglesias, Ray Chang and Ryan Khoury all had three hits. Chih-Hsien Chiang produced two clutch doubles.

But the Thunder made their hits count, scoring five runs with their first five hits. The fifth hit was Cusick’s home run.

Sea Dogs starter Alex Wilson turned in one of his best outings of the year, holding the Thunder to one hit, three walks and one run, while striking out a career-high eight.

Wilson, 23, continues to show why the Red Sox drafted him in the second round last year.

Wilson had scuffled recently, giving up 21 earned runs over his previous four starts, but he was cruising through the Thunder lineup.

“I was able to pound the zone with my fastball, which really opened up spots for my slider,” Wilson said. “The slider has really come around my last two outings.”

Daniel Brewer broke up both the no-hitter and shutout with a solo home run to left-center, giving Trenton a 1-0 lead at the start of the fourth inning.

Meanwhile, Portland squandered chances. Chang tripled with one out in the first and stayed put. More runners were stranded in the second and third.

Portland got two runs in the fifth. Khoury reached on a throwing error, and the Sea Dogs followed with a double (Chiang) and RBI singles by Sheely and Iglesias.

Chang followed with a single to center. Sheely tried to score from second and was thrown out.

Ryne Reynoso relieved Wilson and, after a 1-2-3 sixth, got in trouble in the seventh, allowing a single, double and Cusick’s triple. Cusick then scored on a bunt for a 4-2 lead.

Portland got one back in the bottom of the inning on a walk, Chang’s double and a groundout RBI by Anthony Rizzo.

Ryan Lavarnway opened the eighth with a single. Spears pinch-ran for him. Khoury singled and Chiang doubled them both in for a 5-4 lead.

After Lawson allowed the home run in the ninth, Trenton loaded the bases with two outs on two walks and an infield single. Lawson got Austin Romnine to ground out.

Portland’s third reliever, Daniel Turpen (7-5), allowed a run on three singles in the 10th.

Spears, in his first at-bat, greeted new Trenton reliever Wilkins Arias (3-2) with a blast to the right-field pavilion, tying the game 6-6.

Turpen retired the side in the 11th. Sheely and his speed got things going in the bottom of the inning.

 

Staff Writer Kevin Thomas can be contacted at 791-6411 or at:

kthomas@pressherald.com