NL Gary SouthShore Railcats

RailCats Take Over First Place, Sweep Flyers With 6-1 Win

Published on July 19, 2009 under Northern League (NL)
Gary SouthShore Railcats News Release


GARY, Ind. - Chris Jones fired his first career complete game - a two-hitter - as the Gary SouthShore RailCats assumed first place in the Northern League with their sixth straight win, 6-1 over the Schaumburg Flyers in front of 5,312 fans at U. S. Steel Yard Sunday afternoon.

The win - coupled with a 15-7 Winnipeg loss in Fargo - gives the RailCats sole possession of first place in the league and marks the first time this season a team other than the Goldeyes has been in that position. The RailCats were eight games out of first place on July 3 - just 16 days ago - but have won 11 of 12 games since that time, including five in a row against the Goldeyes to start the streak, and sit a half-game ahead of Winnipeg at the end of action Sunday.

Jones (4-1) made it three straight excellent RailCats starts with one of the best outings of his five-year professional career, allowing only a Travis Brown single in the third and Vince Harrison's RBI double in the fifth. The only run the Flyers did score was unearned, and Jones gave up only one walk to go with a season-high seven strikeouts. The Missouri native retired nine in a row to end the game and had only three runners in scoring position against him.

The RailCats allowed just one earned run (and three total runs) in the three-game sweep of the Flyers, out-scoring their Chicagoland rivals 18-3 over the weekend. Jones, Tony Cogan and Garret Holleran - the three RailCats starters - gave up 11 hits over 23.0 combined innings with three walks and 16 strikeouts.

For the second day in a row, the RailCats got all the offense they would need in the first inning when Mike Massaro doubled to start the game and scored later in the inning on a Jordan Czarniecki groundout. With two outs and two on, Cristian Guerrero added to the RailCats lead with a two-run single to make the score 3-0. Guerrero has hits in four straight games for the first time this year and has driven in seven runs over his last five.

Schaumburg starter Dustin Glant (5-3) allowed five earned runs on 10 hits in 5.0 innings to suffer the loss. Massaro and Guerrero cracked RBI doubles in the fourth and fifth innings, respectively, before the ‘Cats tacked on another run in the eighth.

All nine RailCats starters were part of a 13-hit attack, with Jeff Beachum going 3-for-4 to lead the way. Massaro and Guerrero each had two base hits.

The sweep was the RailCats second straight over the Flyers at U. S. Steel Yard and improved the ‘Cats to 27-4 against Schaumburg since the start of the 2008 season. The RailCats have won 16 of their last 19 overall and improved to 13-2 in the month of July.

The RailCats (33-24) begin an eight-game road trip Monday night at 7:05 p.m. when they continue a home-and-home series against the Flyers (26-29) at Alexian Field. Tom Thornton (7-3, 5.00 ERA) will get the start for the RailCats against former big league right-hander Ed Almonte (4-6, 5.13 ERA). The game will be broadcast live on 89.1 FM, The Lakeshore, and online at www.railcatsbaseball.com.

Notes: Sunday's crowd of 5,312 was the fourth-largest of the year at U. S. Steel Yard ... the ‘Cats drew 14,881 over the three-game weekend series against the Flyers, the biggest weekend crowd this year ... before Sunday, the RailCats had not been in first place in the league since July 4, 2008 ... the RailCats out-hit the Flyers 37-13 during the series ... Jones' complete game is the RailCats second in the last six games. Before that game (July 14), the RailCats last complete game was July 13, 2008 ... Sunday's outing was the 100th of Jones' career and his 75th career start.

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Northern League Stories from July 19, 2009


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