Great Escape: RailRiders end trip with 9-3 win

Alvarez drives in five as SWB ends southern swing victorious

Mandy Alvarez went 3-for-5 and with a home run and drove in five as the RailRiders topped the Stripers 9-3 Sunday.

By Media Relations

August 18, 2019

LAWRENCEVILLE, GA (August 18, 2019) - The Scranton/Wilkes-Barre flexed some early power against the Gwinnett Stripers, homering twice in the first three innings, and used a barrage of 16 hits to defeat the Stripers and avoid a sweep Sunday afternoon.

LAWRENCEVILLE, GA (August 18, 2019) - The Scranton/Wilkes-Barre flexed some early power against the Gwinnett Stripers, homering twice in the first three innings, and used a barrage of 16 hits to defeat the Stripers and avoid a sweep Sunday afternoon.

Before a crowd of 3,835 fans on a sun-splashed afternoon at Coolray Field, both offenses got out of the gates quickly. After seeing his team fall behind 1-0, Mandy Alvarez cracked a two-run home run to put the RailRiders ahead 2-1. Gwinnett tied the game in the bottom half of the inning, but Kyle Higashioka crunched a 415-foot homer to left field to put the RailRiders ahead for good at 3-2.

The game remained 3-2 through the middle innings thanks to RailRiders starting pitcher Adonis Rosa. He allowed a run in each of the first two innings before settling into his outing. Following Drew Waters' RBI single in the bottom of the second inning which tied the game 2-2, he faced the minimum 16 batters through the seventh inning, by which point the RailRiders had extended their lead.

SWB's offense jumped out to four more runs in the seventh inning off Rafael De Paula, growing the advantage to 7-2 thanks to an RBI single by Higashioka, RBI single by Alvarez and a two-run single by Billy Burns before a group of family and friends from nearby Atlanta. Alvarez capped the scoring for the RailRiders in the top of the ninth inning with a two-run double to give him 5 RBI in the game, falling one shy of his career-high set July 2, 2018, with the Trenton Thunder against the New Hampshire Fisher Cats.

Paired with a loss by the Buffalo Bisons, the RailRiders extend their lead in the I.L. North Division to 2.0 games over both Buffalo and Syracuse with 15 games remaining in the regular season.

Following Sunday's game, the RailRiders pile on the bus and make their sojourn north where they will get ready to kick off a four-game series with the Pawtucket Red Sox Monday at PNC Field. RHP Brian Keller (0-1, 10.03) takes the ball for the RailRiders against Pawtucket's RHP Erasmo Ramírez (4-7, 4.25). Pregame coverage begins at 6:35 p.m. on the RailRiders Radio Network before a scheduled 7:05 p.m. first pitch.