RailCats Series Wrap Up

The Saints would open the 2016 campaign looking for a repeat of the success of 2015 with the opening series at home at the beautiful CHS Field in St. Paul against the Gary SouthShore RailCats.

The opening game of the series on Thursday night would see Veteran pitcher and local product (Mounds View HS and Mesabi Range CTC) Mark Hamburger take the mound for St. Paul facing the Veteran Charlie Rosario for Gary. The game would start out with a fair uneventful first 3 and a half innings with Hamburger recording 2 K's and no walks and Rosario also grabbing 2 K's and no walks. That all changed in the Bottom of the 3rd as Caldwell would lead off the inning reaching second on an error by GSS CF Tillman Pugh, Harris would line out but Almadova would reach first and move Caldwell to 3rd on an error by SS Jarred Mederos. Songco would then be walked to load the bases but nothing would come with it as Thomas would go down swinging. In the 4th the Saints would finally start scoring after a walk and a single Tanner Vavra would sacrifice bunt to put runners on 2nd and 3rd. Caldwell would then single to load the bases again followed by a 2 run RBI single by Alonzo Harris to make it 2-0 Saints. With Caldwell on 3rd Almadova would single to drive him in and put runners on 1st and 2nd with 1 out, Harris would steal 3rd and be driven in by another bunt by Willie Argo to make it 4-0 Saints. The RailCats would score 1 in the 5th as Newell would single to drive in Tillman Pugh. However in the bottom of the inning with Nate Hanson on first Mike Gilmartin would blast the first homer of the season to make it 6-1 St. Paul. Alex Gunn who replaced Rosario at P in the 6th would give up 2 runs in the 7th as Vavra singled to score both Hanson and Gilmartin making it 8-1 Saints but would be tagged out trying to advance to 2nd. Former Twins P Caleb Thielbar who would make his first apperence in his 2nd go around with the Saints, it would be relatively unsuccessful as he would allow 3 hits, 2 runs, while walking 1 and striking out no one in the 8th. With the Saints up 8-3 heading into the 9th Ryan Rodebaugh would take over for Thielbar and would strike out 2 out of 3 batters to finish the game. Hamburger would take his first win of the season and Rosario would be credited with the loss.

Game 2 of the series would see the Saints wearing special Ziggy Stardust jerseys as Robert Coe (LS-4) took the mound for The Good Guys starting his 5th season with the ballclub against Eric Eadington for the RailCats. Unlike game 1 this one would start with a BANG! right away in the 1st. As Jose Sermo would get an RBI Single to make it 1-0 Gary. But the Saints would make a bigger splash in the bottom of the 1st as Eadington (who pitched only a single inning in 2015) would walk the bases loaded and give up a run to Nate Hanson who reached on a Fielders Choice. The damage wasn't done as Thomas would drive in Willie Argo on an RBI Single, then after a strikeout he would walk in 2 more runs adding further fuel to the fire before throwing a wild pitch which allowed the runners to advance and a run to score. The inning would only end with Alonzo Harris grounding out with the Saints batting around, St. Paul would take a 5-1 lead out of inning 1. The next big change came in the 3rd with Kevin Osaki replacing Eric Eadington, who would finish with 2.0 IP walking 6 striking out 3 and allowing 5 runs on 1 hit. Another run wouldn't be scored until the Top 6th with 1 on and 2 down Cody Wheeler would replace Robert Coe as pitcher but on his first batter would allow an RBI Single making it 5-2, before allowing another single and walking Brennan Metzger to load the bases. He would make it out of the jam by striking out Hamilton. In the bottom of the 6th Tony Caldwell, on his second pitch, would blast a the Saints 2nd Home Run of the season on a shot to the porch in right field. In the 9th Andy Crawford, who was called on in the 8th, would strike out the first 2 batters before allowing a double and then an RBI Single to Elbert Devarie who would then steal 2nd before Marquis Riley would be walked. Ryan Rodebaugh would be called on to finish out his second straight game but would load the bases by hitting Newell on the first pitch. With the bases loaded and 2 down a wild finish ensued, Tillman Pugh would blast a shot off the wall into right field earning himself and RBI Triple, all the runners from Gary would try and make it home with Devarie and Riley scoring but RF Breland Almadova would use 2B Sam Maus as a cutoff man to get the ball just in time to the catcher Tony Caldwell to tag out the RailCats Cameron Newell to win the game 6-5. Robert Coe would take his first win on the season going 5.2 IP with 5 walks and 4 K's allowing 2 runs on 5 hits. Eadington would take the loss for the RailCats and Ryan Rodebaugh would get his 1st Save in 2016.

The Saints would be looking for a series victory coming into game 3 of 4 against the RailCats on Saturday night which was Star Wars night. With the Saints sending out Jeff Shield entering his 3rd season with the Saints against Karl Triana for Gary. Just like the night before the RailCats would score in the Top 1st to make it 1-0, however in the bottom of the inning against a man playing his first pro game since 2013 the Saints would make the RailCats pay scoring 4 runs. In the 2nd it would get even worse as St. Paul scored 7 runs to put the game to an 11-1 score. The 3rd inning would see that lead go up to 13-1 with back to back home runs by Angelo Songco and Nate Hanson, but Gary struck back with 3 runs of there own in the 4th making it 13-4. St. Paul would bring out the bats and make it 18-4 at the end of 6 including home runs by Angelo Songco (2nd of the game) and Tony Thomas in the 5th. Kody Knaus would come out to finish the game for St. Paul in his first pro appearance after graduating from Concordia-St. Paul in May, he would allow 4 runs but St. Paul would win the game 18-8 and go to 3-0 on the season. Jeff Shield would take the win for the Saints and the loss would go to Karl Triana for the RailCats.

Sunday evening the Saints would take the field looking to go 4-0 on the season on Dog Day at CHS Field. John Straka would take the mound for his first start of the season on the opposite side it would be Travis McGee starting for the RailCats. St. Paul would bring Gary down 1-2-3 and not allow a first inning run for the first time since Friday with Straka pitching 4 shutout and no hit innings, however that didn't slow down the Saints bats as they came out barking with 3 runs in the first. with Alonzo Harris (1st HR of 2016) and Nate Hanson (2nd HR of 2016) would each blast 3 run shots to make it a whopping 9-0 Saints after just 4 innings of play! Gary would bring in 4 in the top of the 5th inning as Tillman Pugh would put away a HR while Matt Hibbert would drive in 1 and Jeremy Hamilton would drive in another 2, but the Saints wouldn't make it easy as Alonzo Harris would get an RBI to make it 10-4 Saints after 5 full innings. The only other run scored for the night was in the 8th inning as Elbert Devarie would drive in a run for Gary to make it 10-5. A 10-5 series sweeping victory would wrap it all up at CHS Field as John Straka took the win (1-0) and Travis McGee the loss (0-1). Over the course of the 4 game series the Saints have drawn a grand total of 32,652 in the first 4 games of 2016 for an average of 8,163 per game!

The Saints 2016 campaign continues as they'll make there way to another 4-0 club and North Divsion rival the Sioux Falls Canaries. The 3 game series kicks off on Monday night at 7:05 PM at "The Birdcage" Sioux Falls Stadium in Sioux Falls, SD. Each game will begin at 7:05 and can be heard here on on the Official Radio Home of the St. Paul Saints "Club 1220" KLBB. Don't worry they won't be gone for long as the Saints return home for another 4 game stretch from Thursday-Sunday against the Kansas City T-Bones. Promos include Military Appreciation Night on Thursday, Friday Night Firework featuring the music of commercial jingles on Friday, Saturday is an Angry Bird helmet giveaway, and on Sunday the Saints will play One Last Purple Game in honor of the late great Prince, it will feature an all purple Fireworks Supershow with his music after the game. I thank you all for reading and until next time ALWAYS remember that Fun Is Good and GO SAINTS!