GARY SOUTHSHORE RAILCATS MEDIA RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 3, 2023
Contact: Zach Letson
Phone: 219-882-2255
Email: [email protected] 

RailCats Walk It Off for Second Time in Seven Days, Take Down DockHounds

Gary, IN — Daniel Lingua lifted the Gary SouthShore RailCats (20-28) to its second walk-off win in the span of one week with a ninth-inning game-winning RBI single.

The RailCats responded by returning the favor and lifting him off the field.

Trailing by one entering the bottom of the ninth, all five of Gary SouthShore’s batters reached base to headline a two-run rally, sealing an 8-7 victory over the Lake Country DockHounds (19-27) in front of 5,065 fans at The Steel Yard on Monday night.

It didn’t happen without a come-from-behind effort.  Lake Country jumped out to a 4-0 lead after the first inning and a half.

However, the ‘Cats bats awakened in the bottom of the second.

Gary SouthShore began the inning with a LG Castillo walk and Jesus Marriaga single.  Francisco Del Valle then connected on a single of his own, driving in Castillo to get Gary SouthShore on the board.  The ‘Cats added one more on a Thomas Greely groundout, plating Marriaga and chopping the four-run deficit in half, 4-2, after two frames.

Lake Country extended the lead back to three in the third inning, but the RailCats registered another multi-run frame to answer soon afterward.  Castillo again got the offense going, leading off the bottom of the fourth with a double into the left-center gap. Del Valle walked, setting up another prime scoring chance for Victor Nova.  The third baseman supplied an RBI single to plate Castillo.  He promptly stole second base, placing runners on second and third base to set up a Thomas Greely two-run single, capping off a three-run inning by leveling the contest at five.

Another comeback effort would be needed, though.  Utilizing a wild pitch and RBI double from Jaxx Groshans, the DockHounds re-took the lead, 7-5, in the fifth.

From that point on, the Gary SouthShore bullpen locked down the Lake Country lineup. Matt Leon, Jared Price, Joan Valdez, Jack Eisenbarger, and DJ Wilkinson combined to silence the DockHounds the rest of the way, tossing 4.2 innings of shutout baseball.

Their efforts gave the RailCats a chance to come back, and they took advantage by cutting Lake Country’s lead down to one in the bottom of the seventh.  With the bases empty and two outs, Michael Woodworth roped a double down the left field line to keep the inning going.  Lingua followed by singling Woodworth in, making the score 7-6.

It set up a dramatic bottom of the ninth inning.  Del Valle was hit by a pitch on the first delivery of the frame.  Nova proceeded to lay down a sacrifice bunt, and an errant throw helped him reach first base.  Greely followed up with a perfectly-placed bunt of his own, resulting in an infield single.

With the bases loaded and no outs, Woodworth drew a four-pitch walk to tie the game at seven.  The very next batter, Lingua, needed just two pitches after that to send the fans home happy.  He connected on a single up the middle, scoring Nova to polish off an 8-7 walk-off victory.

The ‘Cats are back in action starting at 4:00 p.m. for their Fourth of July doubleheader against the DockHounds.  With one win, the RailCats will pick up their 1,000th in franchise history.  All the action will be streamed on aabaseball.tv and broadcast over the radio on 95.9 WEFM and the Gary SouthShore RailCats Broadcast Network via the Mixlr app.

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