Wild 10th Inning Gives Wahoos Much-Needed Win Aas Magic Number Drops To 3

September 5, 2026

The Pensacola Blue Wahoos turned a pitchers’ duel into an extra-inning slugfest on Friday night, outlasting the Columbus Clingstones 8-6 in 10 innings.

The win grows Pensacola’s division lead over the Clingstones to 5.5 games with 8 to play in the regular season. Their magic number to clinch the second half South Division title drops to three, with a postseason clinch possible as soon as Sunday if they win their two remaining games in Columbus this weekend.

The game began as a low-scoring affair, as Orlando Ortiz-Mayr worked 5.0 scoreless innings for Pensacola and Drue Hackenberg turned in a career-high 8.0 innings of one-run ball for the Clingstones. The Blue Wahoos took the game’s first lead in the third inning when Hackenberg uncorked a wild pitch to score Adrian Santana from third base, and that 1-0 score held up until the late innings.

Blue Wahoos reliever Nigel Belgrave struck out the side in order in the sixth, but surrendered a game-tying homer to Dixon Williams to begin the bottom of the seventh inning.

The game remained tied 1-1 until the top of the ninth, when new arrival Max Williams launched a go-ahead homer with two outs for his first hit in his Double-A debut and a 2-1 Blue Wahoos lead. Tasked with protecting the newfound edge, Pensacola reliever Justin Storm (W, 1-0) served up a leadoff homer to Alex Lodise to tie the game 2-2 and force extras.

In the top of the 10th, the Blue Wahoos exploded for six runs against reliever Blane Abeyta (L, 1-4) to take an 8-2 lead. Colby Shade reached on what was intended as a sacrifice bunt and Ryan Ignoffo walked to load the bases for Jay Beshears, who laced an RBI single to center field. Though Shade was thrown out trying to score from second base, the Blue Wahoos re-loaded the bases for Aiva Arquette when Adrian Santana was hit by a pitch. Arquette blasted a two-run double off the left field wall for a three-run inning, and three additional runs came into score on a Dillon Lewis fielder’s choice, Williams RBI single, and Cristian Hernández RBI groundout.

The Clingstones put up a fight in the bottom of the 10th, loading the bases against Storm before Tristan Stevens entered and gave up a grand slam to John Gil to cut the lead to 8-6. Though Stevens hit Eric Hartman to bring the tying run to the plate, Lodise grounded into a game-ending double play to seal the Blue Wahoos win.

The Blue Wahoos improved to 10-1 in extra-inning games this season, and snapped a four-game losing skid with the victory.

The Blue Wahoos continue their series against the Clingstones on Saturday.

written by Erik Bremer

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Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under FRONT FEATURE, Sports, TOP sports