The RailRiders had to wait an extra day to celebrate their home opener at PNC Field after Tuesday’s game was postponed.
When the club finally got the chance to take the field in front of their hometown fans, there certainly was no shortage of fireworks.
The RailRiders rallied from six runs down to take the lead in the bottom of the eighth, and held on for a 7-6 victory over the Durham Bulls on Wednesday night.
Oswaldo Cabrera’s sacrifice fly brought home Duke Ellis to score and capped off a wild rally for the RailRiders, who trailed as much as 6-0 in the middle innings of the game before embarking on a big comeback down the stretch.
Kervin Castro, the fifth pitcher of the evening for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, earned the save with a scoreless top of the ninth inning. Castro worked around a one-out single from Victor Mesa Jr., getting the next two outs to preserve the win and put a capper on a wild home opener for the RailRiders.
Durham took a 2-0 lead in the top of the fourth inning, with Dom Keegan tripling in a run and scoring himself on a sacrifice fly from Jacob Melton.
The Bulls would continue to pad their lead from there, adding three runs in the top of the fifth and one more in the top of the sixth inning.
The RailRiders trailed 6-0 heading to the home half of the sixth, but that’s when the offense began to wake up at PNC Field.
The team’s first run of the evening was scored on a wild pitch that brought Spencer Jones dashing home to score. Paul DeJong made it 6-2 with a double into left field, scoring Seth Brown.
The RailRiders cut the lead to 6-4 in the very next inning, again with Durham helping out a little: another wild pitch brought Jasson Dominguez home to score, and a sac fly from Yanquiel Fernandez plated another run.
In the bottom of the eighth, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre finished the job at the plate: three more runs came across to flip a six-run deficit into a one-run lead.
Again, the RailRiders were fortunate to benefit from some Durham miscues: the first two of Scranton/Wilkes-Barre’s three runs in the eighth inning, including the tying run, were scored on balks called on Bulls reliever Luis Guerrero.
The second balk also moved Ellis over to third base after he was called on to pinch-run for Payton Henry; from there, Ellis was able to put the RailRiders ahead 7-6 after Cabrera lofted a fly ball out to left field.
Danny Watson earned the win for the RailRiders, his first of the young season, with a scoreless inning of relief in the eighth.
Bradley Hanner pitched the sixth and seventh innings and was instrumental in slowing Durham down, allowing just one run on one hit and two walks.
The RailRiders’ offense only amassed five hits and three RBI on the night. Jones had a hit and drew three walks against Durham pitching.
As a team, the RailRiders drew seven walks and benefited from two balks and two wild pitches to score on a night where the bats weren’t quite clicking.
With the win, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre improves to 7-3 on the season, while Durham drops to 2-8 on the year after the loss.
The RailRiders and Bulls will go at it once again on Thursday evening at PNC Field in the second game of their six-game set.
First pitch is scheduled for 6:35 p.m. at PNC Field.
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