After six runs in the first three innings and a six-inning shutout by starter Justin Hancock, the TinCaps looked to be cruising to a win against Bowling Green on Thursday.With one swing of the bat, no-no became oh-no for the TinCaps on Saturday night.
Matt Helm’s leadoff homer in the bottom of the ninth tied it for the home-standing South Bend Silver Hawks, and two innings later he came home from third on Eric Groff’s two-out single to center to hand the Silver Hawks a come-from-behind 3-2 win in 11 innings at Coveleski Stadium.
It ended a game that for a long time looked to be in the TinCaps’ pocket.
Matt Wisler took a 2-0 lead and a no-hitter into the bottom of seventh inning, but Marc Bourgeois finally broke the spell with a one-out single to third.
Ryan Court followed with a single off TinCaps’ reliever James Needy to score Tom Belza, who’d drawn a walk to start things off for South Bend in the inning.
That made it 2-1, and it stayed that way until Helm took TinCaps reliever Daniel Cropper deep to open the ninth, and the game had slipped away.
Tyler Green, Seth Simmons and Kaleb Fleck scattered five hits for South Bend (8-8), with Fleck getting the win. James Jones took the loss for the TinCaps (10-6).
The TinCaps scored their two runs in the seventh on a walk, a stolen base, an RBI single by Mike Gallic and a double by Yeison Ascencio.
