Dogs fall to red-hot Railroaders

CLEBURNE, Texas - David Olmedo-Barrera batted 4-for-5, but it wasn't enough to lead the Chicago Dogs past the Cleburne Railroaders, who edged out a 7-4 victory on Tuesday night at The Depot.

The Railroaders launched three home runs en route to their franchise-record seventh straight win.

Coming into the game, the two teams registered at the bottom of the league rankings defensively, and they combined for five errors on the game.

At the Depot, the Dogs opened the scoring with one run in the second inning compliments of a Trey Vavra single to score Victor Roache.

Cleburne responded with two of their own in the bottom half of the frame, taking advantage of the Dogs' second error of the ballgame to score a run, and adding another when Hunter Clanin scored on a wild pitch to put the Railroaders ahead 2-1.

Chicago retook the lead in the fifth inning, scoring on a single by Olmedo-Barrera to knot the game at two. Edwin Arroyo then scored from third two batters later on a balk by Railroaders starter Jesus Sanchez (W, 5-2).

D.J. Snelten (L, 3-2) was working efficiently into the fifth inning before Chase Simpson tagged him for a one-out, three-run homer to put his team ahead 5-3, spelling the end of the outing for Snelten. It was Simpson's 11th home run of the season, which also pushed his Association-leading RBI total to 49.

K.C. Huth clubbed his fourth homer of the season to make it 6-3 Railroaders in the sixth inning.

The Dogs got within two on a Keon Barnum sacrifice fly in the top of the seventh, scoring Olmedo-Barrera. Cleburne answered back immediately, however, with a John Nester solo homer to re-establish the lead at three.

Luke Westphal (5-1) will start game two of the series for Chicago on Wednesday night.