CLEBURNE, TX (KELO.com) — An eight-inning gem from Stephen Johnson helped the Cleburne Railroaders knock off the Sioux Falls Canaries 3-1 on Monday night at The Depot at Cleburne Station. The Birds (31-42) managed one run on two hits against the starter for Cleburne (44-29), who struck out nine. Kevin Taylor drove in the lone Canaries run with a fourth-inning sacrifice fly.
Birds starter Alex Boshers turned in a solid outing, throwing six innings of two-run baseball but taking a tough-luck loss. Cleburne opened the scoring in the third inning on an unusual play. With Daniel Robertson on first and one out, Cleburne’s Angel Reyes hit a grounder to third, but Kevin Tayler overthrew Alay Lago at second, sending the ball into right field. Right fielder Clint Coulter then overthrew third base trying to catch Robertson, allowing Robertson to score the game’s first run on back-to-back Canary errors. Sioux Falls responded in the fourth.
Brett Vertigan led off the inning with a single, and Alay Lago hit a ground-rule double to put men on second and third. Taylor’s sacrifice fly tied the game at one. Cleburne took the lead in the bottom of the fourth inning on an RBI single from Hunter Clanin and padded their advantage on an eighth-inning homer from Zach Nehrir. The Birds’ offense failed to record a hit for the final five innings.
UP NEXT Sioux Falls starts a new series Tuesday night against the Texas AirHogs in Grand Prairie, Texas. Eric Manoah, Jr. will pitch for Texas; the Birds will counter with Ryan Froom. First pitch is set for 7:05 p.m. on Sioux Falls Sports Radio 98.1 FM and AM 1230 KWSN.
(Carter Woodiel contributed to this report.)
