Ramirez Crushes Walk-Off Grand Slam to Topple Loons 4-1

South Bend, IN - The South Bend Cubs have not played a game that finished in nine innings since last Saturday, but nobody’s complaining about what happened on Friday night at Four Winds Field. In a game that was scoreless all the way up to the 10th inning, the Cubs came back to beat the Great Lakes Loons 4-1 on a walk-off grand slam by Pedro Ramirez in the bottom of the 10th.

Down to their last out, and last strike of the night, Ramirez hammered his slam and craziness ensued in Downtown South Bend.

It was the first homer for Ramirez since June 1, and the set up to the bottom of the 10th inning took place thanks to a massive rally of the base-paths. To talk about what transpired in the lead-up to the big moment, it was goose egg after goose egg hung on the scoreboard all night.

Nico Zeglin got the start for the Cubs, his second in a South Bend uniform. Working mainly out of the bullpen the last number of weeks, Zeglin walked a season high four batters, but found a way to get outs by laying five shutout innings with four strikeouts.

The starter for Great Lakes, Payton Martin, was equally as effective with five scoreless frames with no walks and four strikeouts. To the bullpen the Cubs went in the 6th, with lefty Angel Hernandez jumping on the mound. Hernandez was just promoted from Low-A Myrtle Beach earlier in the day, after starting the season with the Cubs, and spending the last number of months with the Pelicans.

Hernandez battled and worked out of multiple jams, including with the bases loaded in the 7th. He finished with three scoreless innings. The Great Lakes bullpen matched each Cubs momentum swing though, and along we went to the 9th with a scoreless game.

After no club could muster up a run in the 9th, we went to extra innings for the third straight day. This series has yet to see a game finish in nine innings. On Tuesday, the Loons and Cubs played a rain-shortened eight inning contest. Then 11 innings Wednesday, 12 Thursday, and 10 tonight.

Great Lakes did take a short-lived lead, thanks to a base hit by Josue De Paula, soaring the automatic courtesy runner on base to begin the frame.

Down to their final three outs, South Bend was facing righty Kelvin Ramirez on the mound. Cristian Hernandez was the courtesy runner at second, and Ramirez quickly retired his first two outs of the inning with a couple of strikeouts. With all of the following coming with two down, David Avitia walked, so did Christian Olivo, and Pedro Ramirez then stepped up, and took his fellow Ramirez on the mound deep.

It was a walk-off slam, the first at Four Winds Field since Owen Caissie did it in the lead up to his birthday in 2022 against the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers. The first Cubs victory of the week came with an exclamation point, and they’ll head into the rest of the weekend with some major juice.

Next up, the two teams will clash again on Saturday night at 7:05 PM. Right-hander Jaxon Wiggins will be the scheduled starter tomorrow night.