JACK FOX, KANE COUNTY, SHUT DOWN RAILROADERS IN SERIES OPENER
CLEBURNE, TEXAS (August 9, 2022) – It was the Jack Fox show in Cleburne, Texas on Tuesday night. The Emerson College graduate carved up the Railroaders’ lineup in Kane County’s 5-2 victory over Cleburne in the opener of a six-game set from The Depot at Cleburne Station.
Most of the scoring in the contest was done in the first inning. Kane County put three up in the top of the first. Josh Lucas, Cleburne’s starter, struggled with command in the early going, walking the first two batters he faced in Ernie De La Trinidad and Alexis Pantoja. Cornelius Randolph then stepped into the box and laced his first of three doubles on the evening to drive in De La Trinidad from second. Pantoja then scored on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Jimmy Kerrigan and then Randolph came home when Dylan Busby hit a ground-rule double to right field.
Cleburne scored their first run of the game in the bottom half of that same inning. Edwin Arroyo reached via a walk to increase his consecutive game on-base streak to a league-high 38 games. He was driven in on a Hill Alexander sacrifice fly to center field that brought the score to 3-1.
That score held until the top of the eighth when Josh Rolette scorched a double down the line that scored Kerrigan.
Kane County scored again in the top of the ninth. Randolph hit a single up the middle that brought De La Trinidad around to score to give the Cougars some insurance heading into the bottom half of the final frame.
The Railroaders mustered across one more run in the ninth when Kacy Clemens drove in Alexander via a two-out single. Cougars’ closer Ryan Richardson was able to shut the door on the Railroaders when he forced Jacob Bockelie to fly out to left field to end the game.
The Cougars had eight hits in the game, seven of them were doubles. Their lone hit that was not a double was the RBI single by Randolph in the ninth inning, his fourth hit of the game.
Fox was deservedly given the win for his efforts. He limited the Railroaders offensively all night, going seven innings, allowing just one run one just two hits with three strikeouts and two walks.
Lucas picked up the loss for Cleburne. He settled down after a rough first inning, going five innings, allowing three runs on four hits with six strikeouts and three walks.
Cleburne needs to get a win tomorrow in game two of the series, as Gary SouthShore beat the Chicago Dogs to draw within just half a game out of fourth place in the East Division.
The series continues tomorrow with game two starting at 7:06 p.m., with pregame coverage beginning at 6:45 p.m. on aabaseball.tv and on the Railroader Radio Network.