The first leg of the homestand concluded on Sunday with the RailCats and the Dogs faced off to finish off their second series against one another. The Dogs had already taken the series from the day before but the ‘Cats brought on the former pitcher of the week, Andres Diaz.
Diaz got off to a slow start against the Dogs lineup. Nick Dalesandro hooked a ball down the light field line for a leadoff double. After advancing 90-feet on a long fly ball from Brantley Bell, Narciso Crook drove in Dalesandro with a bloop single into right-center.
The RailCats threatened in the second and third but both innings ended in Gary stranding a couple of runners. In the fourth they would not be denied, after back-to-back walks to Guillermo Quintana and Olivier Basabe, LG Castillo hit a long fly ball into left for a double to even the score. Miguel Sierra launched his fifth home run of the year that went for three runs, the new score was 4-1.
Andres Diaz would last until 6.2 innings before Manager Lamarr Rogers would bring in Destin Dotson. Dotson walked two runners to load up the bases for Chicago. Casey Grimm would be called in to stop the threat but Jacob Teter caught a ball in front and sent it to right for the Dogs to take the lead. Gus Sosa and Johnni Turbo added insurance runs to cap off a five-run seventh
Yanio Perez in the bottom of the seventh cut the two-run lead in half, after seven it was 6-5. After two singles from Quintana and Castillo and a throwing error from Bell, Francisco Del Valle stepped in with the go-ahead run at second. With the infield playing in, Del Valle reached and poked the ball into right-center to score both runners, the RailCats led 7-6. Sierra drove in his fourth run as he drilled a ball down the line for an insurance run.
Nate Alexander had pitched a quick eighth and would go for the ninth. With one out, Crook reached on an error from Sierra. Alexander would produce a deep fly ball from Teter that was caught by Gio Diaz, and with Gus Sosa up, Alexander punched out Sosa looking for the RailCats to win the series finale 8-6.
The RailCats record now stands at 22-36. The homestand will continue tomorrow with a four-game set against the Lake Country DockHounds. Tomorrow’s pitching matchup will feature Peyton Long for the RailCats, and right-hander Luke Hansel. The first pitch is scheduled at 6:45 at the US Steel Yard. Tune in on www.AABaseball.TV, MIXLR, and WE.FM 95.9.
