Photo by Marie Nabors
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KANSAS CITY, Kan. – The Kansas City T-Bones, in the playoff hunt, came from behind to defeat the Cleburne Railroaders 5-3 Saturday evening, winning their 53rd game of the year. Five more Ws for the 2018 team and they will have made franchise history.
First-inning woes for the T-Bones again Saturday as the Railroaders grabbed an early 2-0 lead. With one out, Trevor Sealey doubled. The next batter, Levi Scott, followed with an RBI single to put the first run on the board. Angelo Gumbs then hit into a fielder’s choice to score Scott.
Down by two in the bottom of the first, Kansas City came back to get one run. Colin Walsh, for his 22nd RBI of the season, singled up the middle, scoring Ryan Brett from third and edging in on the Railroaders 2-1.
In the third inning, Kansas City tied it up with a spectacular extra-base hit by Todd Cunningham. With Ryan Brett aboard on a fielder’s choice, Cunningham drove the ball down the right field line for a triple that brought home Brett to even things up 2-2.
The T-Bones had a couple of chances to break the tie, leaving two on base in the third and fourth innings, and one in the fifth.
But the bottom of the sixth proved to be the big inning of the game for Kansas City as they advantage of Cleburne’s pitchers. Adrian Nieto hit a single off starter Michael Gunn to get things going. Curcio followed with a walk, and Anthony Phillips was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Nieto then scored on a wild pitch and Kansas City grabbed the lead 3-2 with everyone moving up.
Lefty Will Mathis came in to relieve Gunn. With bases loaded and one out, a sac fly to left field by Mason Davis scored Curcio to pad the T-Bones lead 4-2. A second wild pitch of the inning then brought home Anthony Phillips to make it 5-2 Kansas City.
Cleburne didn’t give up though, grabbing another run in the eighth. Patrick Palmeiro hit a ground ball single into left field scoring Trevor Sealey who had reached on an error by the shortstop, making it 5-3 KC.
The T-Bones prevented any more damage and held their lead into the ninth inning. Cody Winiarski came in to close it out. With runners on the corners and two outs, Winiarski struck out Trevor Sealey for the final out of the game.
With the win, Winiarski (2-1) racked up his tenth save of the season. Marcus Crescentini (4-0), who pitched the sixth inning for Kansas City, got the win and John Hayes (0-3) received the loss.
Jared Mortenson, added to the 2018 T-Bones roster earlier this week, got the start against his old teammates. With 96 strike outs this season, Mortenson was fourth in the league going into Saturday’s game. He went on to strike out seven Cleburne batters over five innings of work for Kansas City.
The T-Bones move to 53-31 on the season and the Railroaders drop to 28-57. Kansas City is looking to sweep the series Sunday at 1:05 pm at T-Bones Stadium.
Season, group tickets, mini-plans and nightly party suites are on sale now and can be purchased by visiting the Box Office at T-Bones Stadium. Call the Box Office at (913) 328-5618 or purchase and print at www.tbonesbaseball.com. Box office hours are 10:00 am to 4:00 pm Monday – Friday and 10:00 am to 2:00 pm Saturday. For additional information or interview requests, members of the media may contact the T-Bones Media Relations Department at (817) 739-3693. Stay tuned to www.tbonesbaseball.com. and the T-Bones Facebook and Twitter pages for updates throughout the season.
