Cleburne, Texas — Starting the second half of the 2024 American Association season with a bang, the Brett Conine led Lake Country DockHounds took down the Cleburne Railroaders with a wire-to-wire 7-3 victory.
Conine got the ball rolling with 5 innings allowing just two runs and the bullpen finished off the final four frames, surrendering only a run. Over his last four road starts, Brett Conine has thrown 26 innings, allowing a measly six earned runs, and showing that he is arguably the ace of the DockHounds.
Blake Tiberi started the game Saturday with a walk and scored the opening run on a Ryan Hernandez ground ball. Hernandez later added his sixth home run of the series and his league-leading 15th of the season on a solo shot.
In the fourth inning, Justin Connell walked with two outs, extending the frame and Ray Zuberer III made Jalen Miller pay with his second long ball of the season to make it 3-0.
Hernandez’s home run was the first of back-to-back jacks for Lake Country, with the second coming from Curtis Terry, his 18th in DockHounds uniform.
“Contributing in games like tonight is so important,” Terry said. “It felt great to get that home run and help the team get going.”
Terry then doubled as a part of the two-run eighth that solidified Lake Country’s win, a celebratory one for Josh Altmann’s 30th birthday, one in which he reached base twice.
Lake Country gained a game on both the Chicago Dogs and Milwaukee Milkmen with the victory to begin the second half playoff push. Bryan Bonnell will make his second start of the series in finale on Sunday. First pitch is set for 6:06pm from La Moderna Field in Texas.
Catch all the action for free on AABaseball.tv.
