The TinCaps douse Marcus Greene, Jr. after his walk-off home run in their playoff game with Bowling Green at Parkview Field Thursday. (Photos by James Costello)

FORT WAYNE — Few hits come any bigger than Marcus Greene Jr.’s series-clinching walkoff home run Thursday night.

Not only did the two-out, two-run homer deliver the sweep for the Class A TinCaps in their first round playoff series with Bowling Green, but it was a physically impressive shot to boot.

With the game knotted at 4-all in the bottom of the ninth, Greene got all of an 0-1 offering from Joe Serrapica, launching the ball 430 yards straight out over the centerfield fence to lift Fort Wayne to a 6-4 victory and cue a raucous onfield celebration at Parkview Field.

Greene embraces Kyle Overstreet in the dugout following his walk-off.

“It felt good. I didn’t really feel it. I looked up, and it just kept carrying to center field and got up over the fence,” said Greene, whose career with the TinCaps began with a home run at Bowling Green last season.

“It’s awesome. It’s a good thing for our team right now. We’re having a good time. It’s fun to celebrate, especially like that.”

“We know he has pop. He hits them out with ease during BP, but to hit them out at nighttime here, especially dead center, is very impressive,” said Fort Wayne manager Anthony Contreras of the 22-year-old catcher.

“It was exciting obviously for him, who has battled injury, who is here as the older guy. To clinch it for us like that in the first round, it’s huge for the team.”

While the veteran delivered the walk-off, it was the TinCaps’ young second baseman whose heroics set the stage for the big hit.

Fort Wayne (70-72) found itself trailing 4-1 following a three-run fifth by the Hot Rods (72-67), but Reinaldo Ilarraza pulled a 1-2 pitch from Orlando Romero down the third baseline, a high fly ball into no-man’s land that bounced over the wall in shallow left for a ground rule double to start Fort Wayne’s rally in the bottom of the seventh. Ilarraza took third on a passed ball at the plate, and Jack Suwinsky scored him with a sac fly to deep left to trim the home team’s deficit to two runs headed into the eighth.

Reliever Will Hayden and the TinCaps defense held in the top of the inning, Greene and Jorge Ona recorded back-to-back singles to start the bottom half of the eighth, and Greene scored on a groundout to short by Gabriel Arias to pull Fort Wayne within a run. With two outs and two strikes against him, Ilarraza blooped a ball to short, only narrowly reaching with a Superman dive into first base that scored pinch runner Robbie Podorsky and tied the game up at 4-4.

Ilarraza left the game with a dislocated middle finger in a dramatic turn of events at the Midwest League Eastern Division playoff-opening series.

“His middle finger was dislocated. They didn’t pop it back in; we rushed him straight to the hospital. We’ll get an idea of what’s going on with him later on,” said Contreras of Ilarraza.

“Obviously a dislocated finger is not the greatest thing. Obviously you can’t let that play go by either. He sells out like that, it allows us to tie the game. It was huge. I praised him when we went in there today after the game. We’ll see if it pops back in. Since the game is on Saturday we’re not sure how quick he’ll be able to bounce back so we might have to make an adjustment.”

Reinaldo Ilarraza knocks down a pickoff throw to second while Miles Mastrobuoni reaches safely on the play.

Although Greene’s walk-off home run may have been Fort Wayne’s first of the year, it was the team’s fourth walk-off win of the season.

Comeback victories have become something of a specialty for the TinCaps, who have rallied for 12 wins when trailing by at least two runs in the second half of the season. Those comebacks are themselves a microcosm of the club’s season, as the team began the year with a franchise-worst 19-39 start through 58 games before reeling off a 42-28 record over the second half of the season to earn the MWL Eastern Division’s top seed.

“We’re staying positive, doing our jobs one at a time, preparing the right way,” explained right fielder Jack Suwinski, who homered on his way to two hits and two RBI Thursday. “Just staying confident and having this momentum that we have through the second half and then into the playoffs and especially this right here — this is a huge way to keep going in the playoffs.”

“They’ve been a slow-starting team. They’ve been one of those teams that has to get that rhythm, and they just wait for that excitement,” Contreras said.

“This team feeds off the energy. They’ve been resilient all year, and they picked a good time to do it again.”

The TinCaps now advance to the Eastern Division Championship Series where they will host either the West Michigan Whitecaps or the Dayton Dragons on Saturday at 7:05 p.m. in Game 1 of a best-of-three series. Games 2 and, if necessary, Game 3 will be played on the road at West Michigan or Dayton with Game 3 scheduled for next Friday night.

“We’ve just got to keep rolling, keep playing the same baseball that we have all season long. We’ve just got to live in the moment and enjoy it for what it is,” said Greene.

Andres Munoz delivers a pitch in the ninth.

Fort Wayne took an initial 1-0 lead on a solo shot by Suwinski against Hot Rod starter Adrian Navas in the bottom of the first, but the TinCaps’ bats fell mostly silent over the next five innings. Bowling Green evened it up in the fourth on a Rene Pinto single and errant throw from short to first by Gabriel Arias following a Jim Haley grounder. The Hot Rods really started rolling in their third time through the order facing Fort Wayne starter Pedro Avila in the fifth, scoring three runs on three hits, a wild pitch, a walk and a sacrifice fly to grab a 4-1 advantage.

Avila — the franchise’s single-game strikeout record-holder — struck out six while surrendering seven hits and two walks for three runs, two earned. Andres Munoz (1-0) got the win in his first decision coming in to replace Hayden in the ninth, allowing a leadoff single by Luis Regnifo before slamming the door shut with three straight outs, including consecutive strikeouts to Garrett Whitley and Josh Lowe, the latter of whom was called for the third out after going around on a check swing. Bowling Green manager Reinaldo Ruiz was incensed by the close call and was ejected after emptying a trash can onto the field at the wild contest.

Serrapica (0-1) took the loss giving up five runs on four hits with two strikeouts and a walk replacing Romero in the eighth.