FARGO, North Dakota – The Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks held off a late rally to take down the Gary SouthShore RailCats on a hot June evening in the friendly confines of Newman Outdoor Field.

Tonight’s game had one of the most wild starts this season as in the top of the first inning, a RailCats runner would find themselves into a pickle which resulted in an official score of 1-3-4-3-6-2-3 (Pitcher to 1^st to 2^nd to 1^st to Shortstop to Catcher to 1^st) and RedHawks’ First Baseman Correlle Prime had to dive to tag the runner to complete the out and end the top of the first inning, but it would not stop there. In the bottom of the opening frame, Dillon Thomas would line a ball back to the pitcher. The ball would then proceed to hit the pitcher in the foot area where it would then line into left field. With Thomas’ speed, he would race to second and forced a hurried throw from the left fielder which would be wide of second base, allowing Thomas to go to third. The following pitch would go wide to score him for the game’s opening salvo.

After a scoreless second inning, the RedHawks would tack on five total runs over the course of the two-ensuing innings. Starting in the bottom of the third, Alec Olund led off the inning with a single, allowing the RBI opportunity for Evan Alexander who would triple down the left field line to score Olund. Alexander would score a couple of batters later for the second run scored. In the bottom of the fourth, singles by John Silviano and Prime would put them in position for a Sam Dexter ground-rule double to score one. B.J. Lopez would follow that with a sacrifice fly to score the second run and Olund would single to score the third run to make it a 6-0 contest after four innings played.

Gary SouthShore would scratch a run in the top of the fifth, piecing together a couple of two out hits to apply the first bit of damage to Fargo-Moorhead’s starter Kevin McGovern. The Gov’s night would end after six innings, collecting his fourth quality start while allowing the lone run off seven hits, walking one and striking out five to collect his fifth win of the season.

The RedHawks’ responded in the bottom of the sixth, as Prime and Dexter collected walks to open the inning, Lopez singled to score Prime from second. Following a fly out, Alexander sliced a single to score Dexter. Conor Maguire, who entered the game in the third inning following an injury, would then load the bases as he beat out a ground ball to the RailCats’ second baseman for the first hit of his professional career. The third run of the inning was scored after Dillon Thomas took a pitch to the side to make it a 9-1 game up to that point.

The RailCats’ were able to show signs of life as they pieced together a collection of hits to score five runs in the top of the seventh and eighth innings to cut the RedHawks lead to three. The RedHawks were able to respond with one more in the bottom of the eighth as Alexander led off with a walk and after a couple of stolen bases, Dillon Thomas would single to left to bring in the run to bring the game to its final score of 10-6 as Reza Aleaziz would slam the door on any opportunities from Gary SouthShore in the top of the ninth.

With the win, the RedHawks improved to a 21-12 record and drew a tie for the lead in the AAPB West Division with the Kansas City Monarchs.

Fargo-Moorhead returns to action Wednesday night as they face off with Gary SouthShore in game two of the mid-week series. First pitch for Cancer Awareness Night is scheduled for 7:02 p.m. at Newman Outdoor Field.