Talk about exit velocity!
Buffalo Bisons catcher Gabriel Moreno hit a ball so hard in the ninth inning of Wednesday’s 15-3 loss to the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs, it became lodged in the outfield wall at Sahlen Field.
According to the game broadcast, the ball came off Moreno’s bat at 111 MPH.
Umpires initially awarded the 22-year-old slugger a home run before correcting it to a ground-rule double.
“I was thinking that’s a homer because that’s what the umpire said first so I kept running,” Moreno told The Buffalo News on Thursday. “But when I looked, the left fielder is pointing and the ball is in the wall. I was just thinking, ‘Wow.’ I couldn’t believe it.”
LeHigh Valley left fielder Chris Sharpe was left trying to figure out what happened, as well.
“With the white background where it landed I honestly just heard a thud and didn’t know where it went,” Sharpe told The Buffalo News. “I looked a little closer and saw a little bit of the ball sticking out there. I just put my arms up so they could see it was stuck and played it safe. Even when I went to go get it, it looks like I pushed it in there a little bit but it was lodged. I could not get that thing out.”
The Bison, Triple-A affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays, had some fun with the incident, putting up caution tape around the hole in the wall.
Moreno is the top-ranked prospect in the Toronto Blue Jays system. The slugger made his big league debut this season, batting .276 with a .300 on-base percentage in 18 games.