Despite leaping out to a third-inning lead, the Gary SouthShore RailCats (36-51) fell 7-3 to the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks (42-46) in Tuesday’s series opener at The Steel Yard.
John Sheaks started on the mound for the RailCats and delivered 4.1 innings of three-run ball, exiting in a tie game.
Early on, after facing adversity, the offense rose to the occasion to provide Gary SouthShore an edge. Fargo-Moorhead took a 2-0 lead in the third, but Gary SouthShore manufactured a quick two-out rally in the bottom half of the inning. Gio Díaz singled and Daniel Lingua doubled, placing two runners in scoring position for Jackson Valera. In a position to do damage, the first baseman uncorked a sky scraping three-run home run down the left field line to flip a two-run deficit into a 3-2 RailCats advantage.
Working with a lead for the first time, Sheaks responded by tossing a 1-2-3 fourth inning, his last full frame of work.
Fargo-Moorhead, though, fought back almost immediately. They responded to the Valera blast by plating four unanswered runs, jumping out to a 6-3 lead of their own after six.
Upon entering in relief to close out the sixth, Joan Valdez helped keep the ‘Cats within striking distance. The right-hander struck out three of the four batters he faced, including one with two runners in scoring position to finish the frame. Throughout his 1.1 inning outing, he did not allow a baserunner.
However, the RedHawks strung together a rally to score once more in the top of the eighth, providing more than enough of a cushion for their pitching staff. A combined three arms fired six straight scoreless frames to close out the contest.
The RailCats return to The Steel Yard tomorrow for the middle game of their series with the RedHawks at 6:45 p.m. All the action will be streamed on www.aabaseball.tv and broadcast over the radio on 95.9 WEFM and the Gary SouthShore RailCats Broadcast Network via the Mixlr app.
