SIOUX FALLS – The Sioux Falls Canaries rallied late but fell to the Cleburne Railroaders in the series finale 8-7 at The Birdcage on Thursday.
The back-and-forth battle began with three solo home runs for Cleburne in the first two innings. Osvaldo Martinez hit one in the first inning and Chase Simpson and Noah Vaughan went back-to-back in the second.
Jabari Henry and Zane Gurwitz responded in the bottom half of the second inning with back- to-back solo home runs of their own to cut into the deficit. The two teams hits a combined nine homers in the game.
Gurwitz went deep again in the sixth to make it 8-4 before Cade Gotta went deep for a two-run blast in the 7th to make it 8-6. Gurwitz finished with four hits. Gotta notched three total RBI.
Ty Culbreth (6-7) took the loss after going six innings. He gave up eight runs (six earned) on ten hits and one walk. Jalen Evans (1-1) got the win after going 5.1 innings. He gave up four runs (four earned) on four hits and three walks.
Sioux Falls rallied in the ninth and appeared poised to get their second walkoff in as many games. Gotta picked up an RBI walk to score Daryl Myers after the Birds loaded the bases with no one out. Tyler Wilson earned his 7th save of the season by leaving the bases full to end the game.
The Birds begin a new series against the Fargo-Moorhead Redhawks at 7:05 pm Friday. Starters for both teams are TBA.
Friday night is Freaky Friday the 13th at the Birdcage with an early Halloween celebration! Dress up in your weirdest, wildest, wackiest costume for a chance at spook-tacular prizes. We’ll determine the Top 5 best costumes and have a ghoulish grand prize for No. 1! Let’s turn The Birdcage into a fantastic, fabulous freak show, because Halloween is the funnest holiday of them all, and we can’t wait until Oct. 31!
A live broadcast of all the home games will be available via Fox Sports 98.1 FM and American Association Baseball TV.
For more information on the Canaries, follow the team on Twitter @canaries. To purchase tickets and for all other team information, visit sfcanaries.com. Media contact: joey@sfcanaries.com.
#CANARIES#
