After a deflating 11–2 loss on Sunday against the Cleburne Railroaders, the RailCats bounced back in Iowa to beat the Sioux City Explorers 6–2. With Tuesday’s win, the RailCats are back to a .500 record (8–8), tied with the Chicago Dogs for third in the East Division and fifth in the league. It was a great game by the pitching staff, which gave up only two runs, and Cooper Weiss and Joe Suozzi both had two-RBI nights. Here are nine things I took away from Tuesday’s 6–2 win over the Explorers.
1st Inning – Sioux City got on the board first after Deyni Olivero gave up a leadoff walk to Austin Davis, followed by back-to-back singles from Henry George and Braulio Vasquez. Vasquez drove in Davis. However, Olivero retired the next 10 Explorers hitters.
2nd Inning – The RailCats would finally answer in the 4th inning by taking a 2–1 lead. Elvis Peralta walked, Joe Suozzi singled, and Peralta moved to third base. Jeff Isom put on a safety squeeze as Camyrn Williams laid down a bunt, scoring Elvis Peralta. With Suozzi at second, Nick Podkul hit a single into left field, giving the RailCats a 2–1 lead.
3rd Inning – The RailCats extended their lead in the 5th as Cooper Weiss drove in Scout Knotts to make it a 3–1 game.
4th Inning – I would call this the turning point of the game. Olivero gave up a single to Braulio Vasquez and a double to Alberto Osuna. With no outs and runners on second and third, it was going to be a tall task for Olivero not to give up two runs. He allowed only one, as Zac Vooletich grounded out to Cooper Weiss. The big play of the inning came when Scout Knotts made a long run from right field after Jackson Van De Brake popped a ball just over Cooper Weiss’s head. Knotts slid, and the ball looked like it bounced off his throwing hand and his leg and flew up as he fumbled it before catching it while standing up. The original call was that Knotts dropped it. The umpires got together and reversed the call, and Explorers manager Steve Montgomery argued the decision and was tossed from the game. Deyni then got Zane Denton to fly out to left to end the inning, allowing only one run.
5th Inning – The RailCats exploded for three more runs in the 7th to seal the game. Scout Knotts and Cooper Edwards both flew out to center and left. Korry Howell walked and stole second, and Cooper Weiss singled to drive in Howell. Peralta then singled to move Weiss to third and stole second base. Joe Suozzi followed with a single, driving in both Weiss and Peralta to take a 6–2 lead.
6th Inning – Another inning that could have turned the game came in the 8th. Denson Hull took the mound. After getting a quick first out, he walked Zac Vooletich, who stole second, and Jackson Van De Brake hit a bloop single to right. If Vooletich had gotten a better read on the ball, he would have scored, but with one out he froze for a second and ended up at third. Denson then got Zane Denton to ground to Nick Podkul, who threw to Cooper Weiss. Cooper was able to turn the double play by getting Van De Brake at second and throwing Denton out at first.
7th inning – Deyni Olivero had another great start, going six innings and giving up two runs, both earned, on six hits, with one walk and five strikeouts. After his first two starts, where he gave up 20 hits, 14 runs (12 earned), struck out only five, and allowed five home runs, he has really turned things around. If he can keep that going, you could see him moving up in the rotation.
8th Inning – The bullpen has been lights out lately. Besides Sunday’s game, the bullpen has given up only one run in its past five wins. Knowing the team has the lead when the starter comes out, it’s great to see the bullpen come in and shut things down.
9th Inning – Even though the RailCats are toward the bottom of the league in offensive categories, we are starting to see them get clutch hits at key times. In this game, they had six innings where they had at least one runner on base, and in three of them they were able to score at least one run. In the innings where they didn’t score, only one of those innings had more than one runner on base.
Extra Innings – This team is finding ways to win games. Are they dominating every game? No, they are not, but finding ways to win will set you up for greater success down the road. The teams you see dominate everyone often seem to falter in the postseason. Being scrappy can have its ups and downs, but when it comes to crunch time, you are used to dealing with adversity, and keeping your hopes alive can be a dangerous thing for opposing teams.
219 'Cats 
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