KANSAS CITY, Kan. – Rob Watson’s (pictured) second home run of the game, a walk-off shot leading off the ninth inning, gave the T-Bones a series win over the Northern League’s best team, the Gary SouthShore RailCats, in front of 5,292 fans at CommunityAmerica Ballpark.

T-Bones’ starter Larkin Braxton staked Gary to a 4-0 lead in the second inning.  Braxton left the game in the second inning with the bases loaded. Travis Schlichting came out of the bullpen and got the next two hitters to ground out, leaving the bases loaded.

In the bottom of the second, Kansas City scored three to pull within one. With two on and nobody out, Jason Belcher singled home the third run, but Austin Easley was thrown out trying to go first to third for the first out in the inning. Gary starter Jim Paduch got out of the inning without any further damage by striking out Rob Watson and getting Correll to pop out, maintaining a 4-3 lead.

The lead held up until the bottom of the fifth, when Watson struck for his first homer of the game, a shot to deep left.  That tied the game at 4-4, but Gary immediately scored an unearned run off Trevor Caughey in the top of the sixth, and added another off of Brett Reid in the eighth.

The T-Bones tied the game in the bottom of the eighth after Calvin Pickering reached on a one-out error.  Donaldo Mendez followed with a run-scoring triple, and Austin Easley tied the game with a sacrifice fly to right that scored Mendez.

Matt Schweitzer struck out the final two batters in the top of the ninth with two men on to keep the game tied heading to the bottom of the frame. The first batter of the ninth for Kansas City, Rob Watson, sent the T-Bones home with their second straight victory with his second home run of the night, giving them the win 7-6.

The T-Bones will try to sweep their first series tomorrow afternoon as Lavon Lewis will start against Jason Shelley for the RailCats.  First pitch is scheduled for 11:05.

Game Notes: Matt Schweitzer made his league-leading 11th appearance in the ninth, with two runners on base and one out, escaping without allowing any runs to score while striking out two…Jose Yepez’s 0-5 night signaled the first time this season an opposing catcher has gone hitless against T-Bones pitching…Donaldo Mendez, hitting sixth for the second straight game, went 2-3 with three RBI.