Tonight: Playoffs Game Two of Round One

As one of the Dubois broadcasters put it, the Bombers were “Railroaded” by our guys last night. The road victory for the Railroaders was only their 6th win on the road this season out of 21 total away games to date. And of the 5 total games between the two teams thus far, the Railroaders have won 3 against the Bombers, the best team in the OVL, I call that impressive.

Tonight, at the Yard in Fulton, the Railroaders and Bombers will go again with a chance for Fulton to eliminate the Bombers from the playoffs and advance to the Semi-Final Round. Should the Railroaders lose, they will have to return to Dubois on Sunday for a third and deciding game in Round One.

The Railroaders appear to be fired up to make a solid run in the Playoffs. I still believe they are the team that can do it too. I recommend we end Round One today!

We need all available Fans to come out tonight to support our Railroaders. The Bombers attendance last night was 289 (relatively low for Dubois). I believe we can do better tonight!  For those who can’t make it, we’ll be online with TeamLine.

Hope springs eternal

Dad and Mom always said, "Hope springs eternal!"

The loss last night to the Chiefs unfortunately placed Railroaders at the bottom of the West for good I think. The only chance Fulton has to take 3rd place requires the Chiefs to beat the Flash tonight, and the Railroaders win over the Stallions with scoring 31 runs. That would leave invoke the second tiebreaker of most runs scored (Head-to-head Miners & Railroaders 4-4, Runs scored Miners 269 & Railroaders currently 239). I’m sorry to say, I don’t believe that is going to happen.

With all that behind, we must look forward to the post season playoffs. It will be a difficult road for the Railroaders. Round One will begin Friday with the Railroaders traveling to Dubois County to take on the Bombers for the first game of the best of three series. Saturday Fulton will host the second game at the Yard. If a third game is necessary it will be in Dubois.

It’s the last chance for the Railroaders to shine. It will be tough, but it can be done though. The Railroaders held their own against the mighty Bombers beating them 2 of 4 games this season; they just need to beat them on the road. Fulton’s road record is a dismal 4-15 so far. Hopefully they can get a road win tonight and finish the regular season on a positive note. Time to move on to the playoffs with fire in our eyes.

The Situation Room

The loss by Fulton and the win by Madisonville over Paducah last night sent the Railroaders to the bottom of the West Division standings. Paducah dropped to 3rd in the standings losing to Madisonville who moved up to 2nd place.

In order for the Railroaders to retake the 2nd seed and home field advantage in Round One of the Playoffs:

1. The Railroaders must win tonight against the Chiefs in Paducah AND beat the Stallions in Mulhenberg on Wednesday.
2.  The Hoppers will have to defeat the Miners tonight, which will complete Madisonville’s regular season.
3.  The Chiefs’ final game on Wednesday against the Flash won’t matter.

When the smoke clears, any tie in the standings between the Railroaders and either the Miners and/or Chiefs will move Fulton down as both teams have won the tie breaker.

Road games have not been kind to the Railroaders this year. Hopefully the final two games will be a turn around for Fulton. Time will tell. The question remains, will we play on Friday or Saturday at the Yard?

Time to make some quick repairs and keep going

Too many leaks last night kept us from getting a full head of steam. Let’s plugged the situation up and get back to winning. Only 3 games to go before the Playoffs. If we want a better seed position, wins are a must now.

On to Hoptown tonight. Tomorrow in Paducah again, and Wednesday at the Stallions. What’s it going to be?

There is on sure way to win the 2nd seed in the West. If the Railroaders can win their final 3 games, they will have the West's second standing sown up. If not, there are several combinations that would need to occur. Bottom line, it's up the team to get victories on the Road.

The unknown that stands for now is whether we host a home playoff game on Thursday or Friday.

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!