RedHawks Fall Short in Series Finale

Gary Southshore outslugged the RedHawks 9-7

FARGO, N.D. (American Association) — Two home runs and four RBIs from Colin Willis, including a go-ahead three-run homer to left-center in the top of the eighth, led the Gary SouthShore RailCats to a 9-7 win over the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks in the series finale on a windy Sunday afternoon. The come-from-behind victory gave Gary their fifth consecutive series win and improves Gary’s record to 12-3 during their last 15 games.

Alex Crosby led off the ball game with an opposite-field home run to left for his second home run of the season, giving Gary a 1-0 lead. Andy De Jesus then pulled a double down the right field line before Willis doubled to the left-center fence. Garrett Copeland followed Willis with a sacrifice fly to center, bringing in De Jesus from third.

The RailCats went in front by three with another run in the fourth. With Reggie Wilson on second and one out, Christoph Bono pulled an RBI double to the right field fence, bringing around Wilson.

Gary (14-8) took their biggest lead of the series at 4-0 after Willis launched his first of two homers off the right field foul pole. The homer was the RailCats second of three on the day and just the second time Gary has hit multiple home runs in a single contest.

Fargo-Moorhead (10-12) responded with five runs in the bottom of the fifth, four of which came with two outs, to take their first lead of the day. Maikol Gonzalez got the RedHawks on the board with an RBI double down the left field line before Keury De La punched a two-run single past a diving De Jesus at shortstop, cutting the RailCats lead to one. Charlie Valerio followed with a two-run blast to left for his league-high-tying eighth of the season, giving the RedHawks a 5-4 advantage.

Crosby and De Jesus opened the eighth inning with back-to-back one-out singles before Mitch Glasser delivered a game-tying infield single for the third consecutive hit. Randy McCurry then replaced Jose Nivar with Willis at the plate and two on base. Willis made him pay with a towering, three-run home run to left-center for his second of two home runs, giving Gary back the lead at 8-5.

De Jesus increased the Gary lead back up to four with a two-out RBI single in the top of the ninth. The RedHawks trimmed the RailCats lead to 9-7 on an RBI double from Devan Ahart and an RBI groundout from De La Cruz, however, Gabe Perez got Joe De Luca to lineout to Bono in center to end the game.

Adam Quintana (2-1) recorded the win after tossing 2.1 scoreless innings of relief while Keaton Steele (4) recorded his team-high fourth hold with a scoreless eighth inning. Every starter recorded a hit for Gary while eight of nine reached base multiple times.

Jose Nivar (0-1) was charged with the loss after allowing three runs on three hits and a walk while striking out one in one inning out of the bullpen for Fargo-Moorhead.

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