Alton Scores Three In The 10th For Walkout Win Over O'Fallon

ALTON, Ill. - The Alton River Dragons scored three times in the bottom of the 10th to stun the O'Fallon Hoots 17-16 in a wild, exhausting 10-inning game at Lloyd Hopkins Field Friday.

With a 65 minute rain delay included, the game lasted nearly six hours and ended just shy of 12:30am.  However, for the few dozen spectators of the 581 attendance that remaind, they saw a the River Dragons' second walk-off win in team history.

After O'Fallon had scored twice in the top of the 10th to take a 16-14 lead, the River Dragons loaded the bases with no outs. A one-out walk to Ben Gallaher forced in a run and Mike Hampton tied the score with a sacrifice fly to center.  Then with two outs, a wild pitch allowed Eddie King Jr. to score the winning run.

Hampton actually earned the win, throwing the final 1.2 innings of relief with the River Dragons having run out of primary pitchers to use.  He came on in the ninth with the bases loaded and one out and induced an inning-ending double play.  The two runs he yielded in the 10th were unearned.

King clobbered two homers, his eighth and ninth of the seasons.  His eighth inning shot was a titanic blast that briefly put the River Dragons up 14-13 heading to the ninth. He finished with four total hits and four RBI.

Blake Burris had three hits and two RBI. Marcus Heusohn added two RBI.

The game featured 28 total walks, five hit batsmen and nine wild pitches.  It also had four home runs and 22 hits to go along with 33 runs.