Sox walk off with a victory

Mitchell Wilhite provided all of the firepower on Thursday night.

Two home runs, including a grand slam, were part of his eight-RBI performance for the Marysville Gold Sox.

On Friday, all he needed was a single to be the hero.

Wilhite knocked in Tommy Lininger with an RBI single in the bottom of the 10th inning as the Gold Sox topped the Walnut Creek Crawdads 7-6 at Appeal-Democrat Park with a walk-off victory.

Lininger reached on a one-out single in the 10th and Casey Scott drew a walk to extend the inning before Wilhite's big hit.

This was Marysville's second extra-inning game of the season. The Gold Sox lost 3-2 to the Humboldt Crabs in 10 innings on June 20.

In Friday's win, the Sox jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first inning.

Victor Romero highlighted that inning with a three-run homer, his seventh of the season.

The Crawdads battled back to make things interesting. knotting the score at 6-6.

Marysville (24-9) had the bases loaded in the seventh with no outs but could not capitalize.

The Sox are 21-9 in the Horizon Air Summer Series' McCullough Division, three games out of first place.

Marysville is the defending HASS champion.

Right-hander Nick Hudson will get the start tonight for the Gold Sox in game two of this three-game series.

First pitch is scheduled for 7 p.m. and there will be a fireworks show following the ballgame.