Milligan Walk-Off Single Completes Explorers Improbable Comeback
Sioux City, IA (August 15, 2021) – Sioux City trailing 9-5 and down to their final out, rallied for five runs to beat Cleburne 10-9 to take the rubber game of the weekend series.
The ninth inning comeback wasn’t the only deficit Sioux City had to rally from as Cleburne posted their own large two out rally in the third. A Chase Simpson base hit gave Cleburne an early 1-0 lead. John Nester then hit the Railroaders first grand slam of the season to make it 5-0 and Tyler Ryan crushed a two run homer to put Cleburne up 7-0.
Sioux City immediately cut into the deficit in the bottom of the third when Lane Milligan hit his tenth homer of the season, a two run shot to make it 7-2.
The X’s added another run in the fourth with a bases loaded walk from Jose Sermo making it 7-3.
Cleburne added a pair in the sixth on Ramon Hernandez and DJ Peterson base hits pushing their advantage to 9-3.
The X’s once again were able to immediately answer in the bottom half of the inning with George Callil scoring on a Jose Sermo sacrifice fly to right field.
Seamus Curran opened up the bottom of the seventh with a solo home run to make it a 9-5 ball game.
In the ninth inning DJ Poteet pinch hit for Callil with two outs and two on and smacked his second homer of the season. The three run shot trimmed the deficit to just a single run. Blake Tiberi then went back to back with Poteet as he slammed one over the right field wall tying the game at nine. After a Lang single and a Sermo walk it was Lane Milligan who was the hero hitting a flare up the middle of the infield that hit second base and bounced into center, allowing Lang to score and the X’s finishing off the five run, ninth inning comeback 10-9.
In all three games of the series, the winning team took the lead in their final at bat.
With the win Sioux City now moves just one game behind Cleburne for the third place postseason spot in the south division with a series coming up with the Railroaders next weekend down in Cleburne. Immediately for the Explorers they will have an off day on Monday before hitting the road for the start of a three game series in Kansas City on Tuesday at 7:00 pm.
By Connor Ryan, Sioux City Explorers