Bill Vilona | Pensacola News Journal

The Blue Wahoos have given Pensacola its latest championship.

In another riveting playoff performance on Friday, the Blue Wahoos lost a lead in the ninth, then sealed a 5-4 victory in 12 innings against the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp to win the Southern League division series and become league co-champions for the first time in franchise history.

On a spectacular day on Pensacola Bay, they did it with the dramatic style that has defined this season.

Aristides Aquino, whose homer provided the go-ahead run in the eighth, had the game winning single in the 12th. Relief pitcher Andrew McKirahan retired Jacksonville in order to seal the title.

Trailing 3-2 in the eighth inning, Gavin LaValley and Aquino hit back-to-back home runs, both of which left no doubt as the balls sail high over the left field fence and bounced toward the water.

But with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, Jacksonville tied the game on a single to center by Austin Dean to force extra innings.

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From that point, the Blue Wahoos bullpen did the rest. Tanner Rainey worked a scoerless 10th, then Andrew McKirahan, who joined the team in August, became the closing hero in pitching the 11th and 12.

As the visiting team in Game 3 of this best of five series, reliever Domingo Tapia got the final out of the seventh, then worked a scoreless eighth.

In the ninth, closer Zack Weiss, who has been part of the Blue Wahoos success in past seasons, was an out away when the game was tied.

In winning this champonship, the Blue Wahoos gave the Cincinnati Reds their first Double-A affiliate title in nearly 30 years. The Chattanooga Lookouts, a former Reds affiliate, won the 1988 championship.