Back on the road for the RailCats, this time heading to Kansas City to face off against the defending league champion, Kansas City Monarchs. The RailCats turned to former Monarch, Carlos Sanabria to open the road trip as he was matched up against Jackson Goddard.
Gary SouthShore was the first team to get onto the scoreboard. Miguel Sierra hit a lead-off double to continue his hitting streak, and once he got settled in at second, Gio Diaz sent him home and traded places with him. Francisco Del Valle and Howard Rodriguez would get their own respective doubles to drive in two more runs.
Kansas City did respond in the bottom of the fifth. With two outs Trent Giambrone scored in Travis Swaggerty to cut into the lead, but then Ross Adolph and Josh Bissonette went back-to-back on run-scoring singles to tie the game at three.
A half-inning later, LG Castillo continued to hit, getting a single and moving up to third on a throwing error by Goddard. With two outs and the go-ahead run at third, Guillermo Quintana saw one pitch and smacked it into the outfield for Gary to retake the lead.
In the seventh, the RailCats ran away with the game. Del Valle hit a single to score Diaz, and then with the bases loaded, Marcos Gonzalez drew a walk to get an RBI, and Quintana made it a three-run inningwith his infield single. RailCats led 7-3 after seven.
The Monarchs scored one run in the eighth with Swaggerty coming through with two outs. But they would go no more as Nate Alexander handled the ninth and shut down the Monarchs bats and the RailCats got their 20th win on the season.
The series continues Saturday at 6:35 with the RailCats attempting to get the series win a game early. Tai Tiedemann is slated to make the start as the Monarchs will counter with Kevin Milam. The game is featured live and for free on www.AABaseball.TV, Mixlr, and WE.FM 95.9.
