The Gary Soutshore RailCats found themselves in the uncomfortable position of being tied with the Lincoln Saltdogs after losing to Sioux City Tuesday night. Another loss would drop them out of first, and there was no way that this group of ‘Cats was going to let anything like that happen. They didn’t claw their way to the top just to watch it get away, and the Explorers learned that lesson the hard way.

After giving up two runs in the bottom of the first inning, Gary got their bats rolling. Henry Wrigley and Josh Romanski led off with back-to-back singles, and Craig Maddox then drew a walk to load the bases with no one out. Ryan Babineau followed with a single, scoring Wrigley and Romanski and cutting the deficit to one. Wally Backman followed with a single to load the bases again, and then Explorers starter Patrick Johnson walked Drew Muren, forcing Maddox across the plate and tying the score at 3. The bases were still loaded with no one out.

Johnson finally got his first out of the inning when he struck out Daniel Pulfer, and looked like the inning was going to come to an end when Drew Martinez hit a ground ball to third baseman Amos Ramon, but Ramon booted the ball and Babineau came into score to make it a 4-3 RailCats lead. Zac Mitchell ended the scoring for Gary in the inning when he hit a sacrifice fly that scored Backman and the RailCats were on top 5-3.

In the third they came right back with another run. Romanski led off with a double and one out later Babineau singled to send Romanski across the plate. The single gave the RailCats catcher three RBI on the day, to go along with his two hits.

Sioux City was not going down quietly however. With one out Morgan Coombs gave up a single to Oscar Mesa and a walk to Tim Colwell. One out later Brock Kjeldgaard singled scoring Mesa to cut the lead to 6-3. For Kjeldgaard it was his third RBI of the game, after his two-run home run in the first staked the Explorers to a 2-0 lead. Peter Barrows then singled to plate Cowell and the RailCats left the fifth up just 6-5. Time for a RailCats rally!

That is exactly what they did. With Kenny Long pitching, Backman singled to lead-off the inning, and Muren followed with his seventh home run of the year. The knock gave the center fielder three RBI for the game to go along with two runs scored. Pulfer followed with a single and Martinez then doubled into left field. Mesa misplayed the ball allowing Pulfer to come around to score, but Martinez was cut down trying to get to third for the first out of the inning. Mitchell then reached on an error by the shortstop, and after Wrigley was intentionally walked, Maddox doubled, scoring both, and extending the lead to 11-5.

Gary plated two more in the eighth when Wrigley doubled to score Mitchell and Maddox later reached on an error scoring Wrigley. Up 13-5, the RailCats were ready to coast to the victory, but the Explorers had one last gasp in them.

With one out, Ramon singled and Dillon Usiak followed with walk. Back-to-back doubles by Michael Lang and Mesa scored three, and the Explorers were back within five; they would get no closer.

Meanwhile the RailCats were not done adding to their score. Backman led off the ninth with his third home run of the year, and third hit of the game. He also scored three runs. Later in the inning Mitchell reached on an error scoring Muren, who had also reached on an error earlier in the inning.

The RailCats finished with 15 runs on 14 hits, and a 15-8 victory. The run support was great, but what mattered most was the fact that the team won, and remains tied with Lincoln atop the Central Division standings. The two teams will go at it again tonight, before Gary moves on to Winnipeg to finish the season.

By Robert Pannier
Senior Baseball Editor
Member of the IBWAA