Wichita Wind Surge catcher runs out improbable inside-the-park home run for walk-off win
Chugging around third base, Alex Isola didn’t have time to process he was attempting to pull off something he never believed possible in a baseball game.
The 5-foot-11, 215-pound catcher looks more likely to be a middle linebacker than someone capable of an inside-the-park home run, but there Isola was barreling toward home plate trying to defy the odds and give the Wichita Wind Surge a walk-off victory.
Sure enough, 360 feet of determination later, Isola slid around the tag to accomplish the unthinkable: a walk-off, inside-the-park home run to lift Wichita to a 13-12 win over the Springfield Cardinals at Riverfront Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
What, exactly, were the odds on that again?
“I would have told you absolutely 0% chance, don’t ever bet on that happening, hammer the under,” said Isola, who confidently confirmed Sunday’s inside-the-parker was the first of his baseball career. “But that’s the thing about baseball, crazy stuff happens.”
It took a come-from-behind effort from the Wind Surge just to give Isola the chance to win it in extra innings. Springfield jumped out to a 6-1 lead before Wichita rallied for eight runs in the bottom of the fifth inning, as the two teams were tied at 11 after nine innings.
Springfield plated a runner in the top of the 10th to take the lead, then Isola was the first batter up in the bottom-half of the inning with Will Holland, the courtesy runner, beginning on second base.
Isola said he went into protective mode after falling behind 0-2 in the count to Springfield pitcher Andre Granillo, but made solid contact on a sinker down in the zone and drove it to center field, where outfielder Victor Scott II tried to make a diving grab but came up empty and the ball rolled all the way to the fence.
“In my head, I was thinking maybe a double because I’m a very slow person,” Isola said. “But then it rolled all the way to the wall and I started thinking I was going to score. I was just waiting for our third-base coach (Takashi Miyoshi) to throw up the stop sign, but he waved me home and that’s when I started running out of gas.”
No one would have blamed Isola for holding up at third base — after all, it was another blistering hot afternoon in the midst of what has been a disappointing 35-48 campaign for the Wind Surge.
But in those struggles, Isola has formed a bond that was on the front of his mind when he was rounding the bases on Sunday.
“You play so many games together and you’re around these guys so much, there’s going to be a lot of days that are hard,” Isola said. “We’ve had a tough year so far, but we want to turn this thing around and finish strong. That’s what I was thinking about the whole time, doing it for the boys. You’re not thinking about yourself and how tired you are, you’re thinking about the group.”
The 24-year-old former TCU catcher was the star of the game for Wichita, even before the game-winning hit. He finished 4-for-6 at the plate to increase his season averages to .255 with 11 home runs and 30 RBI.
But more importantly, Isola, who was drafted in the 29th round by the Minnesota Twins in 2019, made a memory he won’t soon forget on Sunday.
“I knew I was slowing down, but I just gave it everything I had to get there,” Isola said. “And then I had guys ripping my shirt off, pouring water on me and I could barely breathe. But you live for stuff like that. You never take it for granted.
“It did take me a solid 20 minutes after the game to catch my breath, though.”
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