Written By: Dominic Stearn
Gary, Ind. — Leading throughout the ballgame, the Lake Country DockHounds dropped a tough one in the ninth inning by a final score of 8-7 to the Gary SouthShore RailCats.
Three runs scored in the top of the first inning by Lake Country, marking the team’s fourth loss of the season in a game in which they scored first. Demetrius Sims notched his first triple of the season, bringing home two runs, before scoring on Marcus Chiu’s infield single.
Thomas Jones then singled home Brian Rey in the second inning to make it 4-0 Lake Country.
Gary SouthShore responded two runs against Randall Delgado in the bottom half, but Marcus Chiu got one back for the DockHounds with a monstrous home run to right field, his seventh of the year.
Up 5-2, the RailCats tied the game at five, but failed to take the lead when Delgado picked off Thomas Greely with his third disengagement, needing the pickoff to avoid the balk.
The bats picked him, adding two runs the next half to get the lead back on a wild pitch and double by Jaxx Groshans. The RailCats bullpen held its ground from there.
DockHounds manager Ken Huckaby needs innings right now with a shorthanded pitching staff, and asked for seven from Delgado. He got the first two outs against the bottom of the order, but the lineup flipped over for the third time, and a double followed by a single pushed Delgado out of the game and diminished the lead to one. Alberto Gonzalez III came into his highest leverage spot thus far with Lake Country and thrived, stranding the tying run and retiring the side in order in the eighth inning. In an attempt to hold arms for the double header on Tuesday, Huckaby started the ninth inning with Gonzalez, and things went south.
Gonzalez hit Francisco Del Valle with his first pitch, putting the tying run on and ending his stellar outing.
Brady Kais entered after throwing a scoreless frame on both Saturday and Sunday. Both batters he faced bunted and reached.
Matt Mullenbach, who also fired a scoreless inning the prior two days, came in with the bases loaded, nobody out, and the tying and winning runners in scoring position.
He walked Michael Woodworth on four pitches before Daniel Lingua walked it off in front of a frantic crowd that may have largely hung around to watch fireworks, but were treated to an extra show.
The DockHounds can still win the series Tuesday in the scheduled double header. Game 1 will begin at 4:00 CT with the second contest, both of which will be seven innings, beginning approximately 30 minutes following the completion of the first.
