Wallner's walk-off single lifts Saints past Storm Chasers, 6-5
Matt Wallner’s ninth-inning single ended St. Paul’s 0-for-27 skid in trailing-after-eight games and capped a 6-5 comeback over Omaha.
Matt Wallner ended it with one swing, and the Saints finally solved a late-game spot that had been beating them all season. Down after eight innings, St. Paul scored twice in the ninth and beat the Omaha Storm Chasers 6-5 on Wallner’s walk-off RBI single in front of 7,212 fans at CHS Field.
The win carried more weight than a single mark in the standings. Before Friday night, the Saints were 0-27 when trailing after eight innings in this Triple-A franchise context, a number that hung over the ninth like a bad habit. By the time Wallner drove in the winning run, that line had become 1-27, and the Saints had a comeback they can actually point to when the game gets tight again.
St. Paul had already given itself a cushion early thanks to Aaron Sabato, who crushed a three-run home run in the first inning against former Twins pitcher Randy Dobnak. Sabato finished 2-for-4 with three RBIs and a run scored, the kind of line that set the tone and made the Saints look as if they might control the night from the start.
But Omaha kept swinging back. Abraham Toro changed the inning in the top of the eighth with a two-run homer that pushed the Storm Chasers in front 5-4, a punch that looked likely to hold. That left St. Paul needing a real ninth-inning response, not just a scratch run or a lucky break.
Instead, the Saints got the kind of sequence teams remember. They strung together two runs in the bottom of the ninth, stayed alive long enough for Wallner to come up with the game on the line, and finished the rally with a clean single that sent the crowd home happy. For a club sitting at 41-31 after the win, it was the sort of late execution that can change the feel of a clubhouse far more than an ordinary midseason victory.
It also fit the setting. The June 19 home game was part of a Juneteenth celebration with post-game Friday Night Fireworks, and the Saints turned the night into a comeback showcase instead of a routine promotion night. St. Paul had walked off Omaha in another 6-5 game in 2023, but this one mattered more because it finally showed the Saints could answer in the exact situation that had stopped them all year.
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