NL Gary SouthShore Railcats

JackHammers Survive for 12-11 Win Over RailCats in Joliet

Published on July 20, 2008 under Northern League (NL)
Gary SouthShore Railcats News Release


JOLIET, Ill. - The Joliet JackHammers led the Gary SouthShore RailCats 7-1 after two innings and held on late, surviving a ninth inning rally to beat the RailCats 12-11 Sunday night at Silver Cross Field, salvaging a win in the three-game series.

The JackHammers never trailed after opening their early lead but made the game awfully interesting in the ninth. Tyler Meigs worked the eighth inning and came back out for the ninth in search of a two inning save and immediately got into trouble. Rob Marconi doubled, Mike Reese walked and Steve Haake singled to load the bases with no one out, and Marconi and Reese each scored on infield ground outs to pull the RailCats within one. With two outs and Haake on second, Cristian Guerrero hit a ground ball up the middle off the glove of Joliet shortstop Nick McIntyre for an error, but Haake held at third and was there when Mike Rohde lined out to center to end the game.

Joliet scored two-out runs to pad their lead in both the seventh and eighth innings, runs that proved critical in the end. The JackHammers had 17 hits in the game, getting three each from Steve Garrabrants, Cory Harris, Dennis Blackmon, Jr. and Joe Hooft. Garrabrants was the star of the day, going 3-for-4 with four RBIs and three runs scored.

Not to be outdone, the RailCats pounded out 15 hits - and 42 in the three-game series - with three each from Marconi and Jay Pecci. Each of Marconi's hits were doubles, and Pecci finished the series with nine hits, three of which were home runs and four others that went for doubles. Eight of the RailCats' nine starters had hits in the game, with Tanner Townsend adding three RBIs.

The JackHammers took their big early lead with a six-run second inning, roughing up former Joliet left-hander Brian Forystek (2-6). Garrabrants - who had homered in the first inning - had a two-run double in the frame, and Blackmon hit a two-run home run, his first of the season. Forystek lasted only 2.1 innings in his third RailCats start, allowing nine hits and nine runs (five earned), walking three and hitting another batter.

The RailCats began their comeback in the next half inning when Reese cracked an opposite field home run with one out. The longball was Reese's first of the season after hitting five in 2007, and was followed immediately by a Joliet error that put Haake on base. Pecci came up next and, for the third time in two games, launched a two-run homer out to left-center field. Pecci hit two home runs in the RailCats' 6-5 comeback win Saturday and now has eight homers this year, three better than his previous career-high.

After two more Joliet runs off Forystek in the bottom of the third, the RailCats scored twice more against JackHammers starter Dustin Taylor (2-2) in the fourth. Rohde led off with a double, Anthony Esquer walked, and Marconi drove Rohde in from second with his 10th double of the season. Pecci hit a sacrifice fly later in the inning to score Esquer and make the score 9-6 Joliet.

The JackHammers scored a two-out run off reliever Brian Halford in the fifth - just the second run allowed by the RailCats bullpen in the series - but the RailCats answered again with two runs in the sixth to pull even closer. Reese walked and Pecci doubled to put runners on second and third and drive Taylor from the game, and Townsend greeted reliever Chris Buechner with a two-run double down the line in right, cutting the Joliet lead to 10-8.

The RailCats (29-29) return home after an off day, starting a three-game series with the league-leading Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks (35-23) Tuesday night at 7 p.m. at U. S. Steel Yard. Jeremy Plexico (6-3, 2.51 ERA) will start for the RailCats against Fargo's Brett Lawson (4-3, 5.55). That game, as always, will be broadcast live on WEFM, 95.9 FM, and online at www.railcatsbaseball.com .

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Northern League Stories from July 20, 2008


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