CLEBURNE SWEPT IN THE WINDY CITY
ROSEMONT, ILLINOIS (July 24, 2022) – The Railroaders’ offense struggled for the second straight game against a Dogs’ starter as they fell to Chicago 7-5 at Impact Field on Sunday.
It was Chicago this time around that got the scoring started. The Dogs jumped quickly for two in the first inning off Cleburne starting pitcher Garrett Alexander. After retiring the first hitter he faced, Alexander let up a double to Anfernee Grier before Ryan Lidge came to the plate and blasted a ball over the wall to put Chicago in front 2-0.
Cleburne struck for a lone run in the top of the second off Chase Simpson’s 17th home run of the season to cut the lead in half.
The Dogs got that run back and then some with two more in the bottom half of the second as Connor Kopach led off the inning with a double and then Charlie Tilson hit a two-run home run to give Chicago a 4-1 lead.
The home team added two more in the fourth and then another in the fifth to end Alexander’s afternoon. He left the game after allowing seven runs over 4.2 innings of work.
Cleburne got one across in the sixth and then another in the seventh. The run in the sixth came off a Kacy Clemens RBI-ground out to first that scored Chuck Taylor to bring the score to 7-2. In the seventh, Edwin Arroyo lined a double into left field that brought Railroaders’ catcher Nik Sanchez home to further cut into the Dogs’ lead.
Brian Schlitter came on in the ninth inning to shut down the Railroaders and finalize the sweep of their division rivals. After allowing a runner to get aboard, Hector Sanchez pinch-hit in the nine-hole and blasted a two-run bomb to cut the deficit to two runs at 7-5. It was too late for Cleburne, however, as Arroyo lined out to first to end the ball game.
Alexander was given the loss. It was the second consecutive outing for the right-hander where he had allowed seven earned runs and the third in his last four where he had given up that same total.
A.J. Kullman was excellent for Chicago, going 6.2 innings, allowing just three runs on seven hits while striking out three and walking just one.
The bullpen for the Railroaders continued to be solid. Three pitchers, Brendan Bell, Kevin McCarthy, and Austin Fairchild, appeared in relief in the loss, combining to allow no runs on just one hit.
Another bright spot for Cleburne this afternoon came in Gary, Indiana. Gary SouthShore lost to Winnipeg earlier in the afternoon by a score of 3-0 so the RailCats were unable to make up any ground on Cleburne despite the fact that the Railroaders were swept.
Cleburne will start a six-game set with those same RailCats on Tuesday, July 26 at 7:06 p.m. at The Depot in Cleburne Station, with pregame coverage starting at 6:45 p.m. on AABaseball.tv and on the Railroader Radio Network.