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By Jordan Georgeson

The Potters found themselves in a wild back and forth game on Wednesday afternoon on the road against the Healdsburg Prune Packers. The game was a home run derby, with six balls leaving the yard. The Packers got on the board first but the Potters kept tying things up before Healdsburg used a big five-run fifth inning to pull ahead 8-3. The Potters clawed their way back to make it 8-7, but the Packers widened the gap once again to pull ahead 10-7. The Potters tied things up with a three-run sixth inning but Healdsburg added one more in the bottom of the inning to regain the lead 11-10. Lincoln tied things up for the fourth time in the seventh inning. Finally in the ninth, the Potters brought two runs across the plate and held on to complete the comeback and win 13-11. With the Potters victory and the Crawdads loss to the Mudcats, they are now just one win away from clinching a berth in the CCL State Championship.

“We’ve been working hard for situations like this all year and the hard work and perseverance is starting to pay off.” said manager Ryan Stevens after the game. “It was a really gritty win out of this group.”

Offense was the name of the game for the Potters, as they scored early and often in the game. Every single Potter that had a plate appearance reached base at least once and eight different Potters recorded at least one hit. Trey Furrey and Carson Blatnick each had solo home runs to lead off the second and fifth innings respectively. Trevor Haskins hit a two-run homer in the fifth inning to cut the deficit to just one. Quinton Hall made a splash in his return to the team, with a three-run blast in the sixth that tied the game up at ten. Jeffrey David had another big night at the plate, going 4-6 with a double and three runs batted in. Two of David’s runs batted in were in the ninth inning to put the Potters in the lead. Drew Stahl brought two more runs home in the game as well. The Potters scored at least one run in seven of the nine innings played, and left just eight runners on base.

The Lincoln bullpen was crucial to the team’s comeback, holding the Prune Packers to just three runs in the final six innings of the game. The starting pitcher was Matt Ornelas, who went just two and two thirds innings in the afternoon. Logan Bell entered the game in relief in the bottom of the third and pitched two innings, allowing just two runs. Brandon Gomez took over for Bell in the bottom of the fifth and went one inning, allowing just one run. Lucas Wepf came on for the final three and one-third innings and shut down the Packers, allowing just two hits and keeping the Packers off the board for the final three innings. Wepf earned the win in relief, his second of the season. 

“Lucas is a dog man, he’s done it all year for his school. He comes out of the back half of the bullpen and get’s it done. He forces contact, he throws three pitches for a strike. He’s not going to walk you, he’s going to make you swing at it.” added Stevens about Wepf’s relief outing.

The Potters have a break from league play for the weekend as they welcome the Seattle Studs into town on Thursday night for game one of a four-game weekend series. Watch the Potters live on Facebook and listen on Potters Radio via the mixlr app. Also follow along on twitter @LincolnPotters to get live updates!

You can find tonight’s box score here.