FARGO, N.D. — The Gary SouthShore RailCats fell behind 9-2 after four innings but came roaring back with six unanswered runs only to fall just short Saturday night at Newman Outdoor Field, succumbing to the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks 10-8.

The home team scored six times in the fourth off a pair of RailCats pitchers to seemingly put the game away, but the ‘Cats struck for a run in the fifth on a Mike Rohde two-out RBI single.  Then in the sixth, the RailCats got another run and had the bases loaded with one out for Steve Haake, who hit a towering grand slam home run down the right field line to pull the RailCats within 9-8.  The ‘Cats would load the bases again with two outs in the seventh, but Adam Rowe got Eric McNamee to ground out to end the inning and the RedHawks added an insurance run in the eighth to finally finish the RailCats off.

The grand slam was just the 14th in RailCats history and Haake’s first slam with the team.  Haake has four home runs in the last four games and has gone deep in each of the first two games of this series.  The fifth-year RailCat now has 27 homers in his Northern League career and has a driven in a team-high 15 runs this season.

The RailCats opened the scoring in the game – plating a pair in the first inning – but starter Tom Thornton (1-2) could not make the early lead hold up.  Thornton gave a run back in the bottom of the first and Fargo took the lead on Randall Simon’s fourth home run in the third, a two-run shot.  The big lefty exited the game with two runs in and no one out in the fourth and was eventually charged with seven earned runs on 10 hits in 3.0 innings.

RedHawks starter Nick Fellman (1-0) picked up his first Northern League win despite allowing all eight runs (seven earned) on nine hits.  Fellman was followed by Mike Finocchi and Rowe, who closed out the game with 3.2 innings of hitless relief.

Fargo out-hit the RailCats 17-9, getting three hits each from Nic Jackson and Simon, who drove in four.  The RailCats had only nine hits but still managed to leave 11 runners on base, including the bases loaded in the third and seventh.  Rohde and Rob Marconi had two-hit days.

The RailCats (6-9) six-game road trip comes to an end Sunday at 1 p.m. against the RedHawks (7-6) when Onan Masaoka (0-2, 5.93 ERA) will face off against Broc Coffman (2-1, 2.35).  That game will be broadcast live on 89.1 FM, The Lakeshore, and online at www.railcatsbaseball.com.

Notes: The RailCats have lost four straight games for the first time since July 20-24, 2008 … the ‘Cats are now just 1-4 on their six-game road trip to Winnipeg and Fargo … Mike Massaro singled in the sixth to extend his hitting streak to 12 games, the longest hit streak this season in the league … Thornton’s three inning start was the second straight by a RailCats starter … Alex Rollin allowed a run in the eighth, the first run he has allowed in his last five appearances (7.0 innings).