[rink23]

Record: 78-46, 1st, 11.5 GA Cedar Rapids
Ben Thompson hit the first pitch of the bottom of the 11th inning 447 feet over the wall in left-center field to give St. Louis a 4-3 win over Springfield at Busch Stadium (1997).
The pitch was thrown by former River Walkers farmhand TJ Darr, and extended St. Louis' win streak to five games.
Down 3-2, the Walkers had forced extra innings with a run in the bottom of the ninth.
Steve Sullivan scored it after he replaced Steve Rossi as a pinch-runner.
Rossi led off the inning with a single off Mario Reyes.
Sullivan stole second, but remained there while the next two batters grounded out.
Rick Scott, however, got him across the plate with a single.
At one time, St. Louis owned leads of 1-0 and 2-1 only to have the Railers take the lead with a pair of runs in the top of the seventh.
Austin Wells tied with with a one-out homer off Yeison Santos.
Rookie Kevin Baker continued to have trouble, allowing three straight batters to reach to load the bases.
In his two outings since moving to the majors, Baker has allowed seven straight batters to reach bases.
Ricky Cisneros took over and surrendered a fly ball to Carlos Garcia, which was deep enough to score Wander Samuel Franco from third.
Walkers starting pitcher Kaneo Kawamoto was again impressive -- allowing one run on one hits over 5.1 innings -- but was forced to exit in the sixth with an undisclosed injury.
It took seven relievers to finish the game for St. Louis.
They were Cory Tiller (0.1 IP), Yeison Santos (0.2), Baker (0.0), CIsneros (0.2), Argenis Batista (1.2), closer Ernesto Barboa (0.1) and Elian Acosta (1.0) -- with Acosta (4-3) coming out of it with the win.