SIOUX FALLS, SD — The Sioux Falls Canaries (17-10) beat to the Lincoln Saltdogs (14-15) 7-5 in dramatic fashion. Canaries catcher Adrian Nieto hit a grand slam to tie the score at 5 in the bottom of the ninth, and Clint Coulter hit a walk-off two-run home run two batters later.

“He threw me a breaking ball and I was looking for something up,” Coulter said jokingly. “I kinda got lucky.”

The Saltdogs scored first on a leadoff home run from Christian Ibarra. They didn’t stop scoring as the Saltdogs added two more runs after Curt Smith reached first on a single and Body Regis homered. One more run scored after John Sansone doubled and Tyler Moore scored him on his single.

After the first, Canaries starting pitcher Mark Seyler rolled through the next six innings allowing one run to score in the eighth. He pitched seven and two-thirds innings and gave up 10 hits, five runs and struck out two.

The Saltdogs lead 5-1 headed into the bottom of the ninth inning. Brett Vertigan walked, Mitch Glasser was hit by a pitch, and Kevin Taylor walked to load the bases. Adrian Nieto wanted one pitch and he got it. He hammered it over the right-field wall and tied the game with a grand slam.

With nobody out and Alay Lago on first after a single, Clint Coulter stepped up to the plate and destroyed a breaking ball over left field wall. The Canaries scored six runs in the bottom of the ninth and walked off the Saltdogs 7-5.

This was the second walk-off for the Canaries this season. The first came on June 2 against Winnipeg after Andrew Ely walked off the Goldeyes on a broken bat single.

UP NEXT

The Canaries will be back in action Sunday, June 16 when they take on the Saldogs in game three of the series. The pre-game show is scheduled for 12:45 pm with first pitch scheduled for 1:05. Birds fans can listen on Sioux Falls Sports Radio 98.1 FM and AM 1230 KWSN.

Boxscore

Brent Bartels