Clinton LumberKings catcher Mike Dowd pops up a pitch during a game at Ashford University Field earlier this month.

The Clinton LumberKings clinched the second-half Western Division title by beating the Quad Cities River Bandits 6-5 in an epic, 13-inning game that lasted four hours and 15 minutes.

Playing in front of a Tuesday night home crowd of 905, the LumberKings won the game on a bases-loaded sac fly by catcher Mike Dowd with one out in the bottom of the 13th inning. But before the LumberKings won it in the 13th, they twice came close to losing in extra innings. LF Patrick Brady threw out River Bandits 3B Anthony Melchionda at the plate to end the top of the 11th inning, and RF Kevin Rivers threw out River Bandits LF Colin Walsh at the plate for the final out in the top of the 13th inning.

The LumberKings will face the Beloit Snappers in the first round of the playoffs. The Snappers were the wild-card team from the Western Division in the first half of the season. The Wisconsin Timber Rattlers were the first-half winners of the Western Division and will face the Western Division’s second-half wild-card team (probably the Burlington Bees, who lead the Kane County Cougars by three games with six games left in the regular season).