Ronnie Dawson knocked in the winning run with an 11th-inning double, as the Kiwoom Heroes rallied from a 4-0 deficit to walk off the Hanwha Eagles 5-4 on Thursday.

Playing with a sore throat, Dawson drove in four of the Heroes’ five runs to help his team take the first series after the All-Star break in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO).

After winning two out of the three games versus the Eagles in front of 15,205 fans at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul, the Heroes improved to 37-47, though they are still in last place.

The Eagles fell to 37-46-2, good for ninth place.

The Eagles meant business from the top of the first inning, putting up a four-spot with two outs against starter Ha Yeong-min.

Chae Eun-seong knocked in the first run with a single, and Hwang Young-mook cashed in two more runners with a triple to right field. Lee Do-yun then brought Hwang home with a single to right, staking Eagles starter Ryu Hyun-jin to a 4-0 lead before he even took the mound.

The Heroes responded with two runs in the bo
ttom third. They loaded the bases with a couple of soft singles sandwiching a walk. Dawson then cut the deficit in half with a two-run single to left.

Ha Yeong-min settled down after the rocky first inning, and limited the Eagles to just two singles over the next four frames.

Then his teammates made it a one-run game in the bottom fifth, with Dawson again delivering a key hit.

With two outs and a man on first, Dawson launched a towering fly that struck a speaker in the ceiling before falling into shallow right field. As the ball suddenly changed its flight, right fielder Lee Won-seok briefly lost sight of it and couldn’t make the grab. That allowed Jang Jae-young, who was running on contact, to score from first to make it a 4-3 game.

Ha put up another zero in the top of the sixth before the bullpen took over. Reliever Joo Seung-woo kept the Eagles off the board in the top seventh, and that set the stage for the Heroes to pull even in the bottom half of the inning.

With two outs and runners on first and s
econd, Kim Hye-seong lined a double to right-center field to bring home the tying run.

Reliever Han Seung-hyuk avoided further damage, though. He intentionally walked Song Sung-mun to load the bases and set up a force play at every base. The strategy paid off, as Lee Hyung-jong grounded into a 6-4 fielder’s choice to end the Heroes’ rally.

Dawson then finished off the game with one out in the bottom 11th. After a single and a walk put two aboard, Dawson sent a screamer off reliever Kim Seo-hyeon to right-center gap to bring home the winning run.

It was Dawson’s second career walkoff hit in the KBO. The first came on June 25 against the NC Dinos.

Dawson was not made available for comment because he had all but lost his voice. His manager, Hong Won-ki, singled him out as the key player in the win.

“Not only did he drive in runs to get us going early on, he came through with the winning hit at the end,” Hong said. “On the mound, Ha Yeong-min covered six innings after allowing those early runs. Then our reli
evers did their job by throwing one scoreless inning after another.”

After their first-inning outburst, the Eagles had only four more singles the rest of the game.

Ryu settled for a no-decision after allowing three runs on six hits in six innings.

Source: Yonhap News Agency