by Zach Letson, Gary SouthShore RailCats

Gary, IN – Despite scoring five of the last six runs, the Gary SouthShore RailCats (20-30) fell short 8-5 in Game 2 after dropping Game 1 6-0 to the Lake Country DockHounds (21-27) in a Fourth of July doubleheader at The Steel Yard.

John Sheaks got the ball for the ‘Cats in game one, and gave Gary SouthShore a chance to win.  The DockHounds scored once in the first inning, but the right-hander then fired four consecutive scoreless frames to keep it at a 1-0 score through five innings, striking out five Lake Country batters in the process.

In the sixth, the DockHounds scored four times, utilizing a RBI single from Dustin Woodcock and a Brian Rey three-run home run to extend the lead to 5-0.  Lake Country scored once more in the seventh and finished off a 6-0 win in Game 1.

In Game 2, the DockHounds again drew first blood with two runs in the second inning before tacking on five in the fourth, opening up a 7-0 lead.  This time, however, the RailCats had a response.

Daniel Lingua earned a one-out walk to provide an opportunity in the fourth.  One batter later, Gio Díaz smashed his first home run of the 2023 season to left field, getting the ‘Cats on the board to cut the deficit to 7-2.

After Lake Country got a run back to make it 7-2 in the fifth, Gary SouthShore went right back to work in the bottom half of the inning.  The RailCats drew three straight walks from Jesus Marriaga, Francisco Del Valle, and Victor Nova to quickly load the bases.  Despite grounding into a double play, Gary SouthShore recorded their third run, drawing closer at 8-3.

The rally continued into the sixth.  Díaz connected on his second extra base hit of the night, a lead-off double.  Jackson Valera followed up by driving a base hit to center field to place before another Marriaga walk re-loaded the bases.  Del Valle then stepped in and narrowly missed a grand slam, driving a sacrifice fly to the warning track.  Diaz scored, and Valera raced around behind him after a throw to second base resulted in an error, providing three unanswered RailCats runs to pull within three of Lake Country at 8-5.

Nevertheless, Lake Country buckled down and pitched a scoreless bottom of the seventh to escape with the 8-5 win to secure victories in both games of the doubleheader.

The RailCats are off until Friday at 6:45 p.m. when they return home for a three-game series with the Lincoln Saltdogs (24-23).  One more win for the ‘Cats is 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.