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The Gary SouthShore RailCats, after trailing 3-0 early, chipped away against the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks and got a come-from-behind 5-4 victory Thursday afternoon to take two of three from their archrival at U. S. Steel Yard.

 

The RedHawks got up early on RailCat starter Tony Cogan with three doubles in the first inning, scoring two runs. Fargo amassed three more singles in the top of the second, plating another run to go up 3-0. However, the RailCats answered in the bottom of the second, putting the first two men on with a single and a Zach Penprase error. Jeff Beachum, in his first at-bat since June 26, looped an RBI single into right field to score Mike Rohde, getting Gary on the board. Eric McNamee followed with a one-out RBI sacrifice fly to score Brett Wallace. Both runs went unearned against Fargo starter Scott Fogelson.

No more runs were be scored until the sixth when Jeremiah Piepkorn drove a solo homerun to left field off of Cogan to extend the Fargo lead to 4-2. But once again, the RailCats would respond in the bottom half, putting Steve Haake on base to lead off the inning. On a Jordan Czarniecki ground ball, RedHawk third baseman Piepkorn failed to backhand the ball, committing the second Fargo error, allowing Haake to reach third base. Fogelson exited the game and T.J. Stanton would come in. Cristian Guerrero was able to put a grounder into play, scoring Haake to make it a 4-3 game. Fogelson departed giving up three runs, none of them earned.

 

Cogan was pulled after seven innings, giving up four runs on eight hits. Eddie De La Cruz pitched a perfect top of the eighth and in the bottom half, the RailCats find the equalizer against reliever Mike Finocchi. Rohde reached base on the third RedHawk error, then stole second. After a Wallace pop-out, Mike Massaro came in to pinch-hit for Beachum. Massaro delivered a line drive double down the third base line to score Rohde and tie the game. Andy Shipman (2-2) settled in to pitch a drama-filled top half of the ninth, putting runners at the corners on a walk and an error with one out. Shipman would get Scott Koerber to ground into an inning-ending double play and give the RailCats a shot in the bottom of the ninth.

 

McNamee led off the RailCat ninth with a single and was sacrificed to second by Jay Pecci. After Finocchi intentionally walked Haake, he would then walk Czarniecki to load the bases. Finocchi struck out Guerrero for a huge second out, but his first pitch to Rohde would be grounded back up the middle. Penprase dove and gloved it, but could not make a play as McNamee crossed the plate to complete the comeback and give the RailCats the 5-4 victory.