After a masterful start against the Sioux Falls Canaries last week, left-handed pitcher Trevor Lubking was named the Pointstreak Pitcher of the Week following the 7-2 win in the series opener.
In his only appearance of the week, Lubking dealt a RailCats’ longest outing of the year with 8.0 innings against the Canaries while allowing just one earned run on seven hits with a walk and 12 strikeouts. Lubking recorded RailCats’ season-high marks in both strikeouts and innings pitched in game one in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
Through the first three frames, Lubking allowed five of the seven Canaries’ hits against him on the day, but his highness hunkered down and was lights out the rest of the way.
After an error and defensive interference in the third which allowed an unearned run to score, Lubking displayed dominance, retiring the next eight batters he faced and not allowing a hit until the bottom of the seventh against the 12 opposing batters during that stretch.
From the third to the sixth, Lubking struck out seven, including striking out the side in the fifth, to keep things in reach for the late-inning RailCats’ comeback.
After the seventh, it looked like Lubking’s outing had come to an end, but the ‘Cats knotted things up at two-a-piece in the eighth to set the table for one more Lubking frame.
Despite a tumultuous five-batter inning which involved a single and an intentional walk, Lubking worked his way out of a jam with two runners in scoring position through a strikeout and a groundout with a game-saving play by Hayden Schilling.
As the ‘Cats entered the ninth tied at two, Gary SouthShore rallied for five runs and handed Lubking the win in his best start of the year.