GARY SOUTHSHORE RAILCATS MEDIA RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 6, 2023
Contact: Zach Letson
Phone: 219-882-2255
Email: [email protected]
Valiant RailCats Comeback Effort Falls Just Short to Railroaders
Gary, IN – Despite scoring eight of the game’s final nine runs, the Gary SouthShore RailCats (11-13) dropped Tuesday’s series opener with the Cleburne Railroaders (12-12) 10-8 on Tuesday night.
Cleburne compiled a 9-0 lead over the first five innings. The Railroaders utilized a first-inning grand slam from Hill Alexander to strike first. Guillermo Quintana followed with a solo homer before again leaving the yard with a three-run blast in the fifth inning to extend the advantage to nine.
That’s when the RailCats’ comeback trek began. Gary SouthShore plated two runs in the fifth. Jesus Marriaga began the frame with a base knock before coming around to score on a Daniel Lingua single to get the ‘Cats on the board. Marco Hernandez reached on an error and came around to score on a wild pitch later in the inning making it a 9-2 game.
The very next inning, the RailCats continued to rally. After walks from LG Castillo and Marriaga, Emmanuel Tapia brought them both home on his two-run double to deep center field. Lingua came through once again with another RBI knock, making it just a 9-5 deficit. One batter later, Michael Woodworth brought the RailCats within three through a sacrifice fly.
Jared Price took over out of the bullpen and gave Gary SouthShore a chance to finish off the nine-run comeback. He retired each of the first seven batters he faced before escaping a bases-loaded jam in the ninth inning. The right-hander finished with 2.2 innings of one-run ball, allowing no hits and picking up two strikeouts.
Though the RailCats trailed by four down to their final three outs, they refused to go down without a fight. Back-to-back singles from Gio Díaz and Victor Nova began the bottom of the ninth inning, and Francisco Del Valle took advantage by driving in Diaz on a run-scoring groundout. Marriaga followed up with his second RBI single of the game to lower Gary SouthShore’s deficit to two, but at that point, the Cleburne bullpen buckled down and recorded the game’s final out to take game one of the six-game series.
The RailCats are back in action for game two tomorrow night against the Railroaders at 6:45 p.m. from The Steel Yard. 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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