By MATT FULKS, tbonesbaseball.com
GARY, Ind. – The Gary SouthShore offense made a mess of Jared Messer’s start for Kansas City as the RailCats beat the T-Bones 9-2 Saturday night at the U.S. Steel Yard.
After Kansas City blew an opportunity to take a sizeable lead in the top of the first, the RailCats, trailing 1-0, loaded the bases with nobody out against starting pitcher Messer. Gary SouthShore struck for three runs, including an RBI single from newcomer Henry Wrigley, whom Gary acquired from St. Paul before Friday night’s trade deadline.
An inning later, Messer, pitching with a 3-2 deficit, ran into more trouble as he was charged with five second-inning runs without recording an out. Messer (4-3) pitched just 1 inning, and allowed eight earned runs off of nine hits.
The Kansas City bullpen picked up the slack with 4 scoreless innings from Derek Loera and 3 innings of one-run baseball from Hamilton Bennett, but the T-Bones offense couldn't dig out of the early hole. Kansas City had eight hits in the game, but Danny Richar, Matt Padgett and Bryan Sabatella accounted for two hits apiece.
The T-Bones loaded the bases with nobody out in the first frame, but RailCats starting pitcher Dustin Crenshaw (8-8) was able to get Ray Sadler to pop out, Nick Schwaner to ground out and Sabatella to ground out, as Crenshaw allowed just one run. The T-Bones added another run in the second when T.J. Mittelstaedt doubled, scoring Vladimir Frias.
The T-Bones (41-50) look to bounce back in the series finale against the RailCats (49-43) Sunday afternoon with first pitch scheduled for 2:10. The game can be heard in the Kansas City area on 1660-AM or worldwide at tbonesbaseball.com.
