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Sioux City, IA - The Sioux City Explorers used a trio of rallies in the first, sixth and seventh innings to down the Cleburne Railroaders tonight by a score of 11-2. 

Sioux City got contributions from everyone in the ball game as all nine starters in the lineup reached base at least once and eight out of the nine in the lineup either scored a run or drove one in. 

Cleburne was the one who got off to the fast start as on the second pitch of the game Angel Rosa the lead off hitter for the Railroaders launched a solo home run his ninth of the year off of X’s starter James Dykstra who was making his first start back from the disabled list and made it 1-0 Railroaders.

 But Sioux City responded big in the bottom of the first as Michael Lang singled for the X’s with one out as he now has 525 hits in his Sioux City career and is closing in on Nolan Lanes franchise record of 529 hits. Nate Samson backed up Lang with a single and Jose Sermo walked leaving the bases loaded for Jay Baum. Baum then launched a grand slam over the left field wall his sixth home run of the season, the second grand slam of the year for Sioux City and the first grand slam ever hit against the Cleburne Railroaders in their franchise history. 

The Railroaders would add a run on a controversial inside the park home run by Angelo Gumbs as he hit a ground ball down the left field line and it went to the corner and Explorers left fielder Daniel Jackson threw up his hands as the ball scooted under the wall and was un playable for him. The third base umpire even went out and confirmed it as unplayable which should have put Gumbs at second base with a ground rule double but instead the umpire at home plate over ruled the decision and allowed Gumbs who had come around and touched home plate on the play to score an inside the park home run making it 4-2 Sioux City. 

That would be the final inning for James Dykstra though as he would leave before the top of the fifth inning with an injury. Dykstra went 4 innings, allowed 2 runs on just 3 hits struck out 7 Railroaders and did not walk a single batter. 

The X’s would expand on their 4-2 lead in the sixth inning as Jose Sermo lead things off with a double, Jay Baum walked and both moved up on a ground out. David Kerian then brought both base runners home on a single to make it 6-2. Kerian himself would score on a base hit by Daniel Jackson to make it 7-2. 

Sioux City would put together their third rally of the game in the bottom of the seventh as Samson lead off with a walk and Sermo crushed a no doubt two run homer, his eleventh of the year as Sermo put together a 4-4 night reached base all five times he came to the plate, scored 3 runs, picked up 2 RBI’s and stole a bag. Jay Baum would follow with a walk, he would reach second on an error by the Cleburne second baseman with McCall reaching on a fielders choice. Both moved up a base on a wild pitch and Baum would score on a Dylan Kelly RBI single and McCall would score on a wild pitch making it 11-2 X’s. 

Sioux City’s bullpen was once again excellent as once Dykstra left the ball game the trio of Will Lamarche, Parker Markel and Ryan Horstman combined to pitch five shut out innings. Lamarche got the lions share as he went three innings allowing only one single base runner and striking out two. The X’s pitching staff combined to fan 13 Railroaders in the contest and now have struck out 23 Railroaders in the first two games of the series and have outscored Cleburne 17-3 in the series so far. 

The X’s and Railroaders will play game three of the series on Thursday night with first pitch for the game scheduled for 7:05.