Gary SouthShore jumped ahead with two runs in the bottom of the first and never trailed in a 6-3 win over Kansas City on Wednesday night at U.S. Steel Yard in Gary, Ind.
The RailCats attacked T-Bones starting pitcher Casey Barnes early. Barnes led off the bottom of the first by walking Danny Pulfer, who went to third on a double by Drew Martinez.
Josh Romanski grounded out to second baseman Danny Richar, but Pulfer scored from third and Martinez moved up to the third. The next batter, Ryan Babineau, singled up the middle, driving in Martinez and capping the inning.
The RailCats added to the lead in the fourth on an RBI double by Derek Smith that scored Wally Backman Jr. from first.
Kansas City got its first run of the night with a one-out single by Bryan Sabatella in the fifth inning. Sabatella stole second and third, and score on a Nick Schwaner sacrifice fly to deep center that cut the Gary lead to 3-1. The T-Bones pulled within 3-2 when Schwaner drove in Sabatella again in the seventh inning, after Sabatella tripled.
Sabatella and Robby Kuzdale each had two of Kansas City’s five hits, and combined for all three runs (Sabatella two, Kuzdale one). Meanwhile, the top five batters in the Kansas City lineup went one-for-20. The T-Bones struck out 13 times, and collected only one walk from Gary SouthShore pitchers.
The RailCats pulled away with a three-run seventh inning, which was capped by a two-run throwing error by shortstop Vladimir Frias.
After giving up eight runs in each of his last two outings, Kansas City starter Casey Barnes (2-2) allowed only three runs Wednesday in the loss. Reliever Hamilton Bennett gave up three runs on two hits in 1 2/3 innings.
The T-Bones (33-36) and RailCats (40-29) will continue their four-game series with game two Thursday night at 7:10.
Box score: http://www.pointstreak.com/baseball/boxscoretext.html?gameid=178056
– Story from T-Bones