Young future Twins Trevor Larnach and Matt Wallner blast home runs in 5-3 victory opver Tampa Bay

FORT MYERS, FLA. – Minnesota kid pretends to hit a two-out, bottom-of-the-ninth, winning home run for the Twins — that happens all the time. But Matt Wallner, who grew up a half-hour drive from Target Field? It wasn't make-believe for him.

"I've been a Twins fan ever since I could actually know who the Twins are," Wallner, a 22-year-old Forest Lake High School graduate, said Friday after blasting a Deck McGuire fastball off the roof of the bar beyond the right-field stands at Hammond Stadium, turning a sleepy loss to the Rays into a dramatic 5-3 Grapefruit League victory. "It's pretty cool to kind of be homegrown, I guess."

Tampa Bay scored two runs off starter Jhoulys Chacin and an unearned run off Trevor May, and appeared en route to their second victory over the Twins this week. But a pair of walks to start the ninth sparked a Twins rally that the 22-year-old Wallner, who played for Class A Cedar Rapids last season, capped with a long home run.

"That one felt pretty good," said Wallner, drafted out of Southern Miss with the 39th overall pick last June. He told himself "to enjoy the moment, and just make sure I touch all the bags."

Trevor Larnach also homered Friday, his third home run in Grapefruit League play, which moved him into a tie with Nelson Cruz for the team lead. No other player with big-league experience has homered more than once, but Larnach's fellow fast-rising prospects are making up for the drought: Zander Wiel and Alex Kirilloff, each likely to start the season with Larnach at Class AAA Rochester, have two apiece.

Kirilloff, who is tied with Cruz for most hits on the team, helped produce the Twins' other run Friday, lining a two-out single in the fifth inning and moving up on a wild pitch. He scored when Max Kepler followed with a sharp single.

PHIL MILLER