FARGO, N.D. – The Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks walked off on the Milwaukee Milkmen in the bottom of the 10th inning in game five of the Miles Wolff Cup Finals 9-8 to win the 2022 American Association Championship. This is the RedHawks’ first league championship since winning the Northern League in 2010 and the sixth league title in franchise history.
3B Leobaldo Pina stepped to the plate with two runners on and one away in the bottom of the 10th and punched a 1-1 delivery right back up the middle to allow C Christian Correa to score the championship-clinching run. Pina finished the night 2-for-6 while it was Correa’s first time on base in the contest after drawing a walk earlier in the inning.
The game needed extra innings thanks to a pair of big offensive outbursts. The Milkmen took the first lead of the night in the top of the first as DH Keon Barnum (2-for-4) singled home CF Bryan Torres (3-for-5) but the RedHawks moved in front in the second with a two-run home run from CF Evan Alexander (3-for-4). Torres tied things back up in the third when he scored on a sac fly from 2B Miguel Gomez.
SS Sam Dexter (3-for-5) pushed the RedHawks back in front in the fourth when he scored on a sac fly from LF Nick Novak.
The Milkmen put the RedHawks’ championship hopes in serious danger in the top of the sixth when they plated six runs including a homer from C Hector Sanchez (2-for-4), RBI base knocks from Torres and 3B Logan Trowbridge (3-for-5) and two-RBI single from Gomez. But the RedHawks came soaring back in the seventh by loading up the bases and proceeding to plate five runs of their own to tie the score again.
In the seventh, RF Alec Olund drew a bases-loaded walk, Dexter singled and took second on an error that let both Pina and Drew Ward score and, in the next at-bat, Olund and Dexter both scored after a single from Alexander.
This was the second all-time postseason meeting between Fargo-Moorhead and Milwaukee. Both teams met in the North Division Wild Card Game in 2021 when the RedHawks hosted the Milkmen at Newman Outdoor Field and won 5-0. The RedHawks are 24-18 all-time against Milwaukee since the Milkmen joined the American Association in the 2019 season.
Fargo-Moorhead is now 6-5 all-time in potential championship-clinching games.
