(Gary, IN) The RailCats had secured their first series win of the season yesterday with a 9-3 victory over Winnipeg. They set their focus on the Cleburne Railroaders who returned for a new three-game series after they snatched a series win last weekend. J.C. Flowers got the start for the RailCats and he faced the right-hander Leam Mendez.
The RailCats got off to a fantastic start in the bottom of the first. Korry Howell singled after he stole second and Cooper Weiss moved him on a bunt, Elvis Peralta drove in Howell with a sacrifice fly. ‘Cats led 1-0.
In the top of the third inning, Cleburne got on the board. Delino DeShields Jr doubled to right and was driven in on a hit from Cody Thomas. Thomas would work his way to third and scored on a balk call to give Cleburne a 3-1 lead.
Leam Mendez would carve up the RailCats bats striking out nine and post zeros from the second to the fifth. In the bottom of the sixth Howell tripled off the glove of Thomas and Weiss sacrificed himself to make it 3-2. The RailCats in the bottom of the seventh had Joe Suozzi and Cooper Edwards on second and third, and once again Howell delievered with a bloop to center to give the ‘Cats a 4-3 lead.
Flowers only lasted four innings and Frank Plesac would work two scoreless to hand it to Dawson Lane. With the go-ahead run at first in the top of the eighth, closer Jacob Coats came in to shut the door. He would walk Christian Almanza to load up the bases and then struck out Caleb McNeely.
In the top of the ninth Delino DeShields legged out an infield single and stole second and third. With the tying run 90-feet away, Coats would strike out the last three batters to give the RailCats their third win in a row.
Gary SouthShore moves to 6-7 on the season and have a three-game winning streak. Cleburne falls to 5-9 and have lost four consecutive. Tomorrow Matt Reitz will make his first start with Gary and the southpaw Ben Hampton will pitch for the Railroaders. The first pitch is set for 4:00 and their will be a livestream on AABaseball.TV.
The RailCats will have four more games at home with a full slate weekend theme nights, check out the promotional schedule by clicking the link Promotional Schedule and buy your tickets on Tixr.Com/RailCats or call the ballpark at 219-882-2255.