For the second straight night the Calgary Vipers blew a ninth inning lead to lose 8-7 to the Gary SouthShore RailCats at Foothills Stadium in Calgary, Alberta. The Snakes had a 7-5 lead heading into the final frame but a two run homer by Nate Price gave Gary SouthShore the lead and win.

 

Calgary grabbed the early lead in the first when Jason Colson knocked in Nelson Castro on a groundout.

 

The RailCats responded right away in the second inning when Price hit a two run double to give Gary SouthShore the 2-1 lead. It was 3-1 after a Jose Yepez sacrifice fly in the third inning.

 

The Vipers regained the lead in the bottom of the third loading the bases with none out on a Colson walk, Mitch Evans single, and Kevin Price single. Drew Miller then drove in a run on a fielder's choice and with two outs Manabu Kuramochi had a RBI single, Darryl Brinkley a RBI single, and finally Castro a RBI double to give Calgary a 5-3 advantage.

 

The lead slimmed in the fifth when Jay Pecci scored on a Steve Haake RBI double.

 

Brinkley put the Snakes up by three in the bottom of the fifth with his second homerun of the season to left field making the score 7-4.

 

Gary SouthShore chipped away in the eighth adding a run on a Eric McNamee sacrifice fly scoring Dale Mueller..

 

The score was 7-5 heading into the top of the ninth with Ryan Klatt trying to preserve the win. After striking out the first batter of the inning Jose Yepez doubled, Tanner Townsend singled to shallow center field, and Dave Detienne reached on a RBI fielders choice. There was two outs with a runner on first for Price when he smoked a 3-1 pitch off the very top of the right field wall and over it for a two run shot and a 8-7 lead.

 

For the third time this season Evan Greusel left a start with a multiple run lead only to have it slip away for the third time to still leave him without a decision on the year.

 

Geoff Freeborn was solid in the Vipers bullpen going two and a third innings giving up three hits, a run, walking one and striking out three.

 

Castro was four-for-five on the night with a run and a RBI. Brinkley extended his hitting streak to twelve games with a two-for-six, a run scored, and three runs batted in.