Leroux Fires Six Frames as RailRiders Earn Series Split

Jose Pirela Collects Three Hits in Victory

By Aaron Berlin

July 28, 2014

Moosic, Pa. - For the second straight evening the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders (Triple-A/New York Yankees) received a quality start and on back-to-back evenings the RailRiders (53-56) downed the surging Pawtucket Red Sox (Boston Red Sox) Monday night at PNC Field, 5-1. SWB plated five early runs against converted knuckleballer Steven Wright and rode six-efficient frames of one-run ball from starter Chris Leroux en route to the win.

The RailRiders plated a pair of runs off Wright in the home first. Austin Romine's RBI double highlighted the frame, while a sacrifice fly RBI by Adonis Garcia also plated a run for the 2-0 lead. Three more runs crossed in the home third on run-scoring knocks by Garcia, Kyle Roller and John Ryan Murphy that pushed the lead to 5-1. Romine would add another RBI hit in the sixth off reliever Drake Britton for SWB's sixth run of the evening.

Three of the four Pawtucket's tallies came by way of home runs. Garin Cecchini provided the lone blemish against Leroux's ledger with a home run in the second, while Tyler Shaw provided some late fireworks with a two-run home run off reliever Joel De La Cruz in the visiting eighth.

Jose Pirlea collected three hits in his four at-bats while Rob Refsnyder doubled and gathered multiple hits in the affair. Leroux (3-2) notched the win and Matt Daley (9) worked around two-out double by Corey Brown for the save. Wright (5-2) was slated with the loss, his first since his initial appearance with Pawtucket on May 31, a span of nine appearances without a loss.

The RailRiders continue the ten-game homestand Tuesday, July 29 when SWB opens a four-game series with the Gwinnett Braves (Atlanta Braves) at 7:05 p.m. Scranton/Wilkes-Barre will toss the left-hander Nik Turley (1-2, 6.23), while the Red Sox counter with the righty Kanekoa Texeira (1-3, 6.00). John Sadak and Aaron Berlin will have the call on radio with the pregame show beginning at 6:35 p.m. on NEPA Sports Radio -The GAME, Northeast PA's largest radio network: 100.7 FM, 1340 WYCK-AM, 1400 WICK-AM, 1440 WCDL-AM and 106.7 FM. For season ticket information, single-game tickets or to book a ballpark group outing, call (570) 969-BALL (2255) or visit swbrailirders.com.

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