FORT WAYNE – Franmil Reyes delivered in the clutch on Friday night and drilled a walk-off home run in the bottom of the 12th inning to down the West Michigan Whitecaps, 5-4. It was the fourth walk-off win of the season for the TinCaps and the second in three days.

“That has always been my dream, to hit a walk-off home run,” the 19-year-old right fielder said after the victory.

Reliever Gage Smith (L, 0-1) threw Reyes a slider to lead off the 12th and he clubbed it over the left-center field wall.

Neither team had scored a run since the fourth inning. Fort Wayne used eight scoreless innings of relief to keep the game knotted up at 4-4. Brandon Fry,Bryan Verbitsky and Seth Lucio (W, 3-1) allowed just three hits from the fifth to the 12th inning.

West Michigan got on the board quickly. Five Whitecaps reached base in the first inning and two runs came in to score off of starter Dinelson Lamet. But the home team answered in the bottom half of the frame. Michael Gettys ripped an RBI triple that scored Ruddy Giron, and Nick Torres followed with a run-scoring single of his own. The game was tied at 2-2.

Mike Gerber led off the third inning with a solo home run. Once more, Fort Wayne responded. Franchy Cordero led off the inning with a walk and scored when Torres doubled to left field. Two batters later, Reyes drove Torres home with his eighth double of the season. It propelled the TinCaps to a 4-3 lead.
The Whitecaps evened the score in the top of the fourth. It remained 4-4 until Reyes’ home run in extra innings.

The two teams are back at Parkview Field on Saturday for a 7:05 p.m. first pitch. The probable starters are Michael Kelly (0-0, 19.29) for Fort Wayne and Jeff Thompson (2-4, 4.46) for West Michigan.

Watch the action on Comcast Network 81 at 7:00 p.m., or listen in on ESPN Radio 1380, TinCaps.com, and the TuneIn Radio app starting at 6:45 p.m.