Battle for # 2 spot tonight

Tonight is the final home regular season game for the Railroaders. With only 5 games remaining, the race in the West standings for 2nd place couldn’t be any tighter. The 1st place Hoppers have secured the West’s top seed. The Chiefs and Railroaders both have 16-19 records; the Chiefs currently hold the tiebreaker having beaten the Railroaders in 4 of 5 head-to-head games. The Miners with a record of 16-20 with only 4 games remaining are trailing only a half game behind us. The 2nd seed for the playoffs is important for Round One Home field advantage.

The Railroaders face off with the Chiefs 3 more times starting tonight a Fulton’s Fan Appreciation Night. There is no need to say how important this game will be. The Railroaders will play the Chiefs again on Sunday and Tuesday, both times in Paducah of course. Fulton’s other 2 games will be one on Monday in Hoptown and on Wednesday in Muhlenberg with the Stallions if necessary.

Fulton has added replacement players for those who have been taken out, mainly in the pitching area. No new players can be signed on after today by any OVL team.

The Post Season is looming ahead and the Railroaders are working hard to secure a higher seed for the Playoffs. We’ll need all hands on deck tonight at the yard to help the Railroaders get back on the winning track after a single loss to the Bombers last night (For note though: we took them out 2 of 3 straight games, no other team can say that).

See you at the Yard or online TeamLine. Let’s roll Railroaders!

High Flying Bombers headed our way

Good win last night against the Chiefs. We’ll see three more times, the first on Saturday at the Yard for our last home game of the regular season. The race in the West is tight for everyone below the leader Hoptown who is 4 games above the current 2nd place Chiefs. The Miners and Railroaders close behind at 5 games back.

The Railroaders have 8 games remaining and still a chance to improve in the standing. Today we have a doubleheader in Fulton against a dominant Bombers team who has already clinched the East Division title. This will be the toughest challenge yet for the Railroaders. Only once have we met them and loss 5-2 in Dubois. The Railroaders will also have to travel tomorrow to Dubois for a third and final game against the Bombers.

Post Season Playoff series begin week from today. The best of three games Round One will pit the #1 seed against the #4 seed and #2 against #3 teams in each division. Home field advantage will go the higher seeds, meaning game one and three (if necessary) will be played at the higher seed’s field.

The Railroaders have their best chance to take the #2 position with only a one game separation between the three lower teams. The #1 spot is still in the picture at this point but appears to be a long shot. The final dash starts tonight. See you at the Yard or on TeamLine today, 5 pm start. Let’s go Railroaders!

Chiefs on the warpath

First of all, the loss to Hoptown last night hurts as we were simply out played. BUT it’s over and done. Let’s put it to rest and move on.

Now we must face off with the Chiefs tonight in Fulton.  We have 4 more games with the warriors before closing the regular season. Four times before we have fought with the Chiefs and 4 times we’ve lost the battles. “Why?” I asked myself. So I cloaked myself and infiltrated the head-to-head numbers to investigate.

The most glaring difference between these teams is Runs and Earned Runs. The Chiefs have given up 16 runs to the Railroaders and 14 of them were earned. However, the Railroaders have allowed the Chiefs 33 runs total with 22 earned. The 10 errors Fulton had must have contributed to that, Paducah had only 4 against us. The Railroaders have improved of late in the area, so we should be ready to resolve that issue.

No doubt the Chiefs pitching has assaulted the Railroaders. Their team ERA is 3.50 against us while ours is 5.82 against them. We can improved in that area as well. Bobo is back from his injury and another fresh new arm may be coming our way.

The Chiefs have been timely at the plate battling us. Of their 33 runs scores, 28 were RBI. Percentage wise the Railroaders right are there with them, 13 RBI for 16 runs total.  Hits are pretty much equal, Chiefs have 41 and Railroaders 39. Runners left on base are 30 for the Chiefs and 40 for the Railroaders.

There are 9 games total left to play before the Post-Season contest. Fulton has 3 days of Home games to complete with one tonight, a doubleheader tomorrow (Bombers) and Saturday against the Chiefs again. We need Fan support at all them. Hope you can make to the Yard for some intense baseball. Let’s fire it up!