Barnum Leads Dogs Mauling of RailCats, 16-6
GARY, Ind. — Keon Barnum drove in seven runs and smacked two homers to lift the Chicago Dogs to a 16-6 win over the Gary SouthShore RailCats on Friday night at the U.S. Steel Yard.
The Dogs rewrote their offensive record books, setting new franchise records in runs (16), hits (21), RBIs by a single player (seven, Barnum), and tied a record for margin of victory (10) on a night where Luke Westphal (W, 8-1) delivered a serviceable start to log his league-high eighth win.
Chicago promptly lit up RailCats starter Frank Moscatiello (L, 0-1) for six runs in the first two innings. The first five batters of the game reached for the Dogs, highlighted by a three-run homer by Barnum out to right to make it 4-0 by the end of the first. In the second inning, Trey Vavra drove in two with a double to extend the Dogs lead to six.
In the bottom of the third, RailCats center fielder John Price, Jr. drove in two on a single up the middle to make it 6-2. They were the only two runs that Gary SouthShore had scored off Westphal all season.
Chicago tacked on two more in the fourth, a two-error inning for Gary SouthShore off RBI singles from Trey Vavra and Barnum to retake a six-run lead before Gary SouthShore responded with two of their own immediately after, courtesy of a two-run homer by Danny De La Calle. They made it three runs in two innings with a solo shot by Price, Jr., and trailed Chicago 8-5 after five.
The Dogs offense promptly went ballistic and scored eight unanswered runs, four in the sixth and four in the eighth. Barnum led off the sixth his second homer of the game and David Olmedo-Barrera drove in two more with a double to make it 12-5. In the eighth inning, Barnum drove in his sixth and seventh RBIs of the game with a double to cap the assault at 16 runs for the Dogs.
Ben Allison pitched three solid innings of relief for his first save of the season.
The Dogs will play two against the RailCats on Saturday, the first of which is a resumption of a game suspended due to fog before the second, regularly-scheduled affair gets underway 30 minutes after that. LHP Jake Dahlberg (4-3) and RHP Wes Torrez (0-2) are tabbed as the Saturday starters.
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By Sam Brief