The Kansas City T-Bones (37-20) offense was too much for the Cleburne Railroaders (19-36) Wednesday night in Texas, as KC completed the three-game series sweep by a final score of 8-3.
Todd Cunningham, the league leader in batting average, doubled with out to start off the game for Kansas City off Cleburne ace Jared Mortensen.
Two batters later, Noah Perio Jr. singled to center scoring Cunningham giving the T-Bones an early 1-0 lead. Taylor Featherston wasn’t satisfied with a one run lead, so he decided to rock the park himself with a two-run home run to finish out the first inning 3-0 KC.
Former T-Bone Angel Rosa was walked by starting pitcher Pasquale Mazzoccoli in the bottom of the first. Rosa then stole second before advancing to third on a single from Chase Simpson.
With one out, Mazzoccoli balked as it appeared that his spike caused him to stumble in his release, scoring Rosa while Simpson would advance to second base. Kansas City put the brakes on Cleburne’s offense ending the inning with a dominant strikeout from Mazzoccoli.
Rosa once again got the offense going for the Railroaders with a single to lead off the third inning. The duo of Rosa and Simpson combined for five hits Wednesday night.
Simpson then doubled which drove Rosa into scoring position. Rosa then scored off an RBI put out by Levi Scott to end the inning.
The top of the fourth inning began with a drop third strike followed by an error from the catcher that put Keith Curcio on second base. Dexter Kjerstad then singled, driving in Curcio to put the T-Bones lead at 4-2. Kansas City ended the inning leaving both Tice and Kjerstad on first and second.
In the bottom of the fifth, Angel Rosa continued his terror on T-Bones pitching by crushing a home run over the center field wall putting Cleburne back by only one run.
Jared Mortensen walked Keith Curcio to start the sixth inning. A single up the middle from Mason Davis put Curcio on second.
Todd Cunningham came in clutch for Kansas City, crushing a single to right field that scored both Curcio and Davis making the score 6-3.
Jackson Lowery, Nick Lee, Joe Filomeno, Ian Hardman, and Marcus Crescentini silenced the bats for the last three innings unlike the Railroaders’ closer John Menken.
Filomeno returned to the T-Bones bullpen tonight after his recent contract deal fell through with the Seattle Mariners.
In the top of the ninth, Todd Cunningham was walked to start off the long inning. He then stole second and was joined on base after Colin Walsh also drew a free pass.
Noah Perio Jr. smashed a single that then scored Cunningham. A Taylor Featherston single then drove in Colin Walsh putting the score at 8-3. Featherston recorded three RBIs on the night.
Kansas City’s Nick Lee (1-0) got the win Wednesday night in relief, while Cleburne’s Jared Mortensen (3-3) was credited with the loss.
The T-Bones will return home to Kansas City for a three-game series against Texas Friday night.
The first game of the series is on Friday night and first pitch is at 7:05 p.m.
Individual tickets, season, group, mini-plans and nightly party suites are on sale and can be purchased by visiting the box office at T-Bones Stadium or www.tbonesbaseball.com. Box office hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday-Friday and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday.
The T-Bones’ games are airing on the T-Bones Broadcast Network, http://mixlr.com/t-bones-baseball/.
– Story from T-Bones