railroaderbaseball.com

Article By:

 CLEBURNE, Texas -- Ed Pruitt retired the side in order in his first professional pitching appearance in 30 years, but the Cleburne Railroaders lost 5-2 to the Salina Stockade in the home finale at The Depot on Sunday night.

Pruitt, pitching for the first time since he was in the New York Mets organization from 1982-1987, induced a flyout and a pair of groundouts against the heart of the Salina order. He is believed to be the oldest pitcher in American Association history.

Cleburne finished with just five hits, and two came in the first inning. After a Maikol Gonzalez walk and a Mitch Glasser double, Nick Van Stratten opened the scoring with an RBI infield single.

The Railroaders then went hitless until Mitch Abeita’s leadoff single in the seventh, and the Stockade scored twice on Javeon Randle’s two-out single in the second and three more times on Fernando Garza’s bases-clearing, two-out double in the fourth.

Pinch-hitter Pichi Balet came up as the tying run after Alex Polston drove in a run with an infield single in the ninth, but with two outs Balet hit a fly ball to the wall in left for the final out of the game.

Cleburne did work seven walks, and five came in the fifth and sixth innings. But the Railroaders stranded four across those two innings, and wrapped up the 60-game home schedule an even 30-30.

Gonzalez extended his on-base streak to 14 with a leadoff walk in the first, and all but one Cleburne starter reached safely.

Railroaders starter Dylan Mouzakes gave up five runs over 5.1 innings, but the Cleburne bullpen combined for 3.2 scoreless innings of relief.

Salina starter Connor Bach, who carried an 8.01 ERA through 57.1 innings into Sunday night, gave up just one run over six innings and earned his second win of the year -- both at The Depot.

Cleburne now hits the road for a season-ending seven-game roadtrip beginning with three games against the Wichita Wingnuts starting Tuesday. First pitch time from Lawrence-Dumont Stadium is 7:05 and can be heard live on the Railroader Radio Network.