The first half of the Railway Series belong to the Railroaders as they beat the RailCats 9-4 on Sunday nights game. The RailCats pitching was able to hold the Railroaders to just one in the previous 2 games. Tonight the Railroaders finally exploded.

Here are nine things I took away from Sunday’s game loss.

1st Inning – This is an off-field observation, but one that is vital to the home broadcast. Each year, Andrew picks his college intern to help with color commentary. The last two were Graham Nash, who went to IU, and Charlie Huiras, who also went to IU. Both fell more into the basketball realm, but for them it’s important to get experience covering different sports. You could hear Andrew really teaching baseball to those two, and it was great to listen to them grow over the year.

This year, I didn’t know who Andrew picked to be his sidekick until after the home opener. He chose Michela Barbanete, a softball player for the Penn State Nittany Lions—and a very good one at that. She played in 54 games, slashing .297/.412/.545 with an OPS of 1.006. She had 43 hits, scored 48 runs, and recorded 6 doubles, 3 triples, 8 home runs, and 26 RBIs.

What I’m going to like this year is that she understands baseball at a high level. Yes, baseball and softball are two different sports, but they share the same concepts. She will be focusing more on developing as a broadcaster rather than developing into a baseball broadcaster specifically. You can tell she has the knowledge—she is very passionate about sports and loves to talk about them. Her flow with Andrew feels natural. With both Graham and Nash, I believe it took a few weeks to get into a rhythm. I’m really going to enjoy the home broadcast this year,

2nd Inning- Elvis Peralta has been on an absolute terror starting this season. If it wasn’t for his 3 run home run in 3rd and solo shot in the 8th the RailCats would have been shut out in back to back games. So far this season Elvis is leading in every major offensive catogory. He is slashing .412/.512/.794 with an OPS of 1.306. He is leading in runs scored (10), hits (14), home runs (4), RBI (15).

3rd Inning – With Cooper Weiss struggling at the plate, Jeff has moved him around to try to get him going. Last night, he was moved to right field. To me, he isn’t an outfielder. I believe this is only the second time in his professional career that he has played in the outfield. I understand trying to get a player going, but moving him to a position that is unfamiliar to him could cause more harm than good. Baseball is 90% mental, and if a player is thinking too much, you won’t get the results you need. Cooper may need a reset—maybe taking a series off or a couple of days.

4th Inning – When looking at the team after the first full week, I see that Jake Guenther has only played in six of the nine games, yet he is 3rd in batting average, 4th in on-base percentage, 2nd in slugging, and 4th in OPS. I scratch my head wondering why he isn’t in the lineup every day, especially when playing at the Steel Yard. With the bullpen out in right field, more balls are likely to leave the yard with Guenther in the lineup. The offense is struggling, and keeping him out of the lineup is hurting more than helping. I understand he may struggle against left-handed pitchers, but simply assuming he can’t isn’t helping either.

5th Inning – The struggle of the offense feels like the players are deviating from the plan of being patient and trying to hit home runs in every at-bat. The plan has proven to work—in the games they’ve won, they got on base, stole bases, and came through in the clutch when needed. The issue they have been running into is that walks and singles will only get you so far. The RailCats sit at five doubles on the year. The stolen bases have slowed down, and not hitting with runners in scoring positions has been a major issue.

6th Inning – In this game, the Railroaders found their offense, recording 16 hits, four of which were doubles. They were able to chase Alonzo Richardson after he pitched only 3.1 innings, collecting 11 hits and scoring six runs off him.

7th Inning – The RailCats gave up a big inning in the 4th, allowing five runs. Richardson gave up three of them after two ground balls were hit to Basabe. One of those was a tough play for Basabe, who would have gotten the runner at first base but fumbled the ball. It wasn’t entirely on Basabe, though. The next hit went under Suozzi’s glove, which tacked on two more runs. If you take away that inning, the score would have been 4–4 going into the 9th.

8th Inning – In the first two series of the year, I was getting concerned about the infield. We didn’t see the plays that Basabe or Peralta typically make at third and short. But they seemed to get their mojo back. Basabe made some great plays at third to keep Cleburne from scoring more runs.

9th Inning – I really like this bullpen. Outside of a couple of rough games at the beginning, the bullpen has been very dependable. I just hope the offense can figure it out, because if the bullpen or starting pitching has too many high-pressure innings, it could wear down the pitching staff. By the end of the season, you could have the hitting but no pitching because they’re tired from all the tough innings they had to throw early on.

Extra Innings – The Indiana Beach jersey looked awesome. It seems the RailCats have taken their jersey designs to another level over the last two years, showing a true sense of pride and thoughtfulness in how they present themselves.