Grays walk off Cropdusters in unorthodox fashion, win second straight

All hope seemed lost for a DC Grays comeback in the bottom of the ninth when Cam Bufford (Grambling State) hit a fly ball to right field with two outs and runners on second and third, trailing by two.

Then, the unthinkable happened.

The Cropdusters right fielder dropped the routine fly ball, to which Diego Barrett (George Mason) on third and Sam Blancato (Georgia Southern) on second capitalized upon, scoring to tie it at four a piece on the errant play. 

And in the next at-bat, Max Harper (BYU), facing an 0-2 count, drilled the third-pitch he saw straight up the middle to score Bufford from second, walking off the Cropdusters.

But how did the Grays end up in this situation? 

Earlier in the game, the Grays pounced first in the bottom of the second, with Logan Scully (George Mason) hitting a double down the left field line, driving in Tyler Horvat (Washington and Jefferson) to take the 1-0 lead. 

The Cropdusters quickly responded, however, tying it in the third and in the fourth sending home two, before scoring their last run of the night from a homer in the sixth. 

The Grays attempted to make a comeback in the bottom of the eighth, as Bufford drove home Henry Zipay (Nebraska-Omaha) to cut the deficit to two. Within striking distance to tie and then some with the bases loaded, the Grays were cut short, as the Cropdusters relief pitcher who came in with one out subsequently struck out the first two batters he faced, which ended the inning. 

Though at the end of the night, the Grays are the ones that end up in the win column, thanks to some unlikely bottom of the ninth heroics, and improve to 5-7 this season. 

The Grays will look for their third win in a row and take on the Silver Spring-Takoma T-Bolts Tuesday night at 7 pm.m at the Washington Nationals Youth Academy.