06/23/2006 11:14 PM - KANSAS CITY – The Kansas City T-Bones (16-18) rallied late Friday, taking advantage of two late miscues and some timely hitting to claim their fourth straight victory with a 7-5 win over the Gary SouthShore RailCats (13-20) before a crowd of 6,310 fans at CommunityAmerica Ballpark.

The late-inning heroics started with Kansas City trailing 5-4 in the bottom of the seventh inning. Greg Jacobs singled off reliever Steve Edsall to score Brandon Jones, who doubled for the second time in the contest to lead-off the frame.

Still tied in the eighth, the T-Bones benefited from two costly RailCats errors and clutch hitting to seize control of the game for good. Lead off man Doug Dreher singled off Ryan Miller and advanced to second on the first of two Tanner Townsend throwing errors in the inning, then scored the go-ahead run on Jacobs grounder to short with one out. Charles Peterson followed with an RBI single to give the T-Bones an insurance run and a 7-5 lead.

Byron Embry struck out two of the three hitters he faced in the ninth to close out the win and record his eighth save of the season.

The victory capped a see-saw battle that included five lead changes. Trailing 1-0 in the third, the T-Bones took what looked to be a commanding lead, scoring four times on four hits off RailCats lefthander Josh Habel. Jacobs came through with the first of his three RBI, knotting the score at 1-1 with an RBI- ground out that brought Jesse Acosta home. Peterson, who singled in the first inning, knocked in the second run of the inning with a single to center to give Kansas City its first lead. After a two-out walk to Pat Magness, followed by a Craig Hurba single to keep the scoring threat alive, Dreher delivered the first of his two game-impacting hits- a two-run single to right-center to stretch the Kansas City advantage to 4-1.

But the RailCats evened the score in the sixth on run-scoring singles from Andy Rohleder and Jay Pecci, knocking Kansas City starter Buddy Blair from the contest. Rohleder delivered once more the following inning off reliever Caleb Balbuena, singling home Jermaine Allensworth to give Gary SouthShore its 5-4 lead.

Balbuena (1-1) struck out two in two innings of work to pick up the victory. Miller (1-1) suffered the loss for the RailCats, allowing two unearned runs on two hits in the fateful eighth inning.

The T-Bones and RailCats will hook up again Saturday at 7:05 p.m. for game two of their three-game set. Kansas City will send RHP Jonathan Krysa (5-2, 3.25) to the mound to oppose Gary SouthShore RHP Jason Shelley (4-2, 5.13).

Game Notes: With his first-inning single Charles Peterson (3-for-4) stretched his home hit streak to 16 games…Peterson, Greg Jacobs and Eddie Pearson (2-for-5) have all reached base safely in each of the T-Bones’ 17 home games this season; each has also posted eight multi-RBI games this season…Pat Magness (1-for-3, BB, R) entered Friday night’s contest with a .519 on-base percentage in his 12 games since signing with the T-Bones…Entering play Friday Jacobs led all Northern League batters with a .467 on-base percentage and ranked third with a .350 batting average…The T-Bones have hit a league-best 26 home runs in June…Brandon Jones doubled twice Friday to extend his hit streak to nine games …Manager “Dirty” Al Gallagher picked up his 300th Northern League victory with Thursday’s 3-0 win over Joliet.