LEDET AND OFFENSE CRUISE TO VICTORY OVER CATS
X’s Bats and Patrick Ledet Roll to Series Opening Win
Sioux City, IA (July 30, 2021) – Sioux City received another good start and the offense rolled over the Gary SouthShore RailCats en route to a 12-3 series opening victory on Friday night.
Patrick Ledet (6-3) picked up where Jonah Smith and Zach Hedges left off, as he earned the victory going seven innings, allowing just three runs on eight hits while striking out nine and walking none.
For Ledet, that now makes it two consecutive quality starts and wins and in that time he has thrown 14.2 innings, allowing six runs (3.68 ERA) while walking none and striking out twenty.
He was given a large cushion to work with by the X’s offense who remained hot on their home stand. They scored in the first inning after Chase Harris led off the inning by reaching on a dropped third strike, he then stole second and third and scored on a Jose Sermo single.
After Gary tied the game in the second on a Jesus Marriaga single, the X’s scored five times in the bottom of the third. With the bases loaded and one out it was a string of RBI’s from Seamus Curran and Sebastian Zawada singles and a Blake Tiberi sacrifice fly. A wild pitch and a Mitch Ghelfi infield knock capped the scoring to make it 6-1.
For the X’s they collected six hits in the inning, all of them singles with three of them not leaving the infield.
Patrick Ledet shut down the RailCats after being handed the six run lead. After giving up the RBI single to Marriaga he set down ten straight, including the first six by strikeout.
Sioux City broke the game wide open in the sixth with another big rally. Sermo collected his second and third RBI of the game with a base hit with the bags packed. Zawada and Tiberi produced RBI singles and Joseph Monge scored two on a double.
For Sioux City’s offense all nine in the starting lineup contributed either an RBI or a run scored. And seven of the nine either scored multiple runs or drove in multiple runs. The X’s also collected fifteen hits, with thirteen of them being singles, with just two doubles.
Taking the loss for Gary was Jack Eisenbarger (0-1) who was making his professional debut. In five innings he gave up eight runs, seven earned on nine hits while walking four and striking out five.
The RailCats scored twice in the seventh on a Jackson Smith triple. And Danny Hrbek finished off the night for Sioux City with two scoreless frames out of the pen, striking out four as the X’s struck out thirteen RailCats as a team.
Now winners of seven of their last eight, the Explorers turn their attention to Saturday night’s contest against Gary which is set to begin at 6:05 pm. Joe Riley (3-2, 6.37) will be on the hill for the Explorers and Gary will send out Josh Vincent (1-2, 6.97).