RailRiders use seventh-inning rally to edge Norfolk 3-2

Scranton/Wilkes-Barre broke a 1-1 tie with a two-run seventh inning and held on for a 3-2 win over Norfolk on June 30 at PNC Field in Moosic, Pennsylvania. The RailRiders made the most of their first home game of the second half, taking the opener of a six-game set and setting an early tone for the stretch run.

The RailRiders got on the board in the second when Payton Henry singled, Duke Ellis reached on catcher’s interference and Jonathan Ornelas ripped an RBI ground-rule double to right. That sequence put Scranton/Wilkes-Barre ahead 1-0 without the benefit of a long ball, and it reflected an inning built on pressure, not power.

Norfolk answered in the third against Adam Kloffenstein. The Tides used a walk and a hit before Enrique Bradfield Jr. tied the game with a run-scoring infield single, leaving the contest square at 1-1 and forcing both clubs into a lower-margin game. Kloffenstein settled in from there and finished with 5.0 innings, one run, two hits, five strikeouts and two walks, giving Scranton/Wilkes-Barre the kind of start that kept the game within reach.

The decisive push came in the seventh, when the RailRiders manufactured the margin with patience and discipline. Henry was hit by a pitch to start the inning, Duke Ellis and Jonathan Ornelas followed with walks to load the bases, and J.C. Escarra drew a bases-loaded walk to force in the go-ahead run. Marco Luciano then lifted a sacrifice fly, stretching the lead to 3-1 and giving the home side the only cushion it would need.

That advantage still had to survive late pressure. Zach Messinger handled the seventh and eighth, allowing one run and two hits while earning the win and improving to 5-1. Norfolk trimmed the deficit to 3-2 in the eighth on a Christian Encarnacion-Strand sacrifice fly after loading the bases, but Carson Coleman finished the job in the ninth. Coleman struck out Creed Willems and then caught Heston Kjerstad in a rundown before the tying run could score, closing out his second save of the season.

The victory moved Scranton/Wilkes-Barre to 41-40 overall and 4-3 in the second half. In a series that runs through July 5, the RailRiders won the kind of game that often decides how a clubhouse feels about itself: tight early, precise in the seventh, and calm enough at the end to protect a one-run lead.