Stevenson’s walk-off single lifts Mud Hens past Clippers on Memorial Day

Cal Stevenson turned a tight Memorial Day grinder into a walk-off celebration at Fifth Third Field, lining a sharp fly ball to right in the ninth to bring home Max Burt and lift the Mud Hens past the Columbus Clippers, 3-2. The winning swing came with one out and after a frantic sequence that had already pushed the game to its edge: Max Clark walked, advanced on a wild pitch, and Tyler Gentry was hit by a pitch to force in the tying run before Stevenson ended it in the next at-bat.

It was the kind of finish that fit a rare Monday night crowd. Toledo played in front of 5,617 fans at 5:05 p.m. ET in clear 76-degree weather with wind blowing in from right field, and the ballpark got the payoff it had been waiting for all evening. The game lasted 2 hours, 35 minutes, and for most of that time neither club could separate from the other. Columbus collected seven hits, Toledo only three, and the Clippers left six runners on base in a game that never fully opened up.

Ty Madden gave Toledo the first important piece of the night, working 4.1 innings in his rehab start for the Detroit Tigers’ Triple-A club. He allowed four hits and one earned run, struck out three, threw 70 pitches with 40 strikes and was charged with a balk. It was not dominant, but it was the right kind of outing for a pitcher returning to game action, and it kept Toledo close enough for the bullpen to finish the job. Sawyer Gipson-Long then covered the final four innings and earned the win.

That mattered because the Hens never found a groove offensively. They did not need a big inning or a barrage of extra-base hits. They needed a bullpen-heavy night, a steady hand from Madden, and one clean swing at the end. Stevenson provided it, and the victory gives Toledo a one-run result it can carry into the next series, while Columbus was left with another reminder that in Triple-A, a game can flip on one pitch and one out.