Canaries Home Win Streak Ends In Series Finale

SIOUX FALLS, SD -- The Sioux Falls Canaries lost their bid to break a team record with a nine consecutive home win on Sunday afternoon with a 9-1 loss to the Gary SouthShore RailCats.

The Birds (26-36) still captured three of four games in the series and are 6-1 against the RailCats this season.

The Canaries offense had a promising start when Nick Van Stratten led off the bottom of the first with a double and scored on Marcos Rodriguez’ single. But the Canaries had just two more base runners after that. RailCats starter Ari Ronick (6-5) retired the next 20 of 21 batters he faced, yielding only one more infield hit from Stephen King. Ronick threw seven innings, allowing only one run on three hits. He did not walk anybody and struck out eight.

Gary SouthShore (35-26) led the entire game. Ryan Babineau doubled home a run in the first inning, and Christian Vitters followed with a run-scoring base hit. They scored four more runs in the third inning, leading to an early exit for Canaries starter Adam Champion (4-7). Champion’s briefest outing of the year lasted 2 1/3 innings. He allowed six runs and eight hits in his second consecutive loss.

The RailCats collected 14 hits, led by Mike Massaro’s 4-for-5 performance with three RBI.  Vitters had three hits and two RBI, and Christian Guerrero also had a two hits and a pair of RBI.

After an off day on Monday, the Canaries open a six-game road trip with the opener of a three-game series against Winnipeg on Tuesday.

Courtesy:  Sioux Falls Canaries