JOLIET, Ill. — The Joliet JackHammers sent 11 men to the plate and scored seven runs in the bottom of the ninth inning to come back and earn an improbable 8-7 win over the Gary SouthShore RailCats Wednesday night at a soggy Silver Cross Field, salvaging one win the three-game series.

The comeback started in the ninth against Grant Johnson when Kevin Rios doubled to lead off the inning but harmlessly went to third on a Freddie Thon groundout.  The next nine men, however, would all reach base.  Rios scored on a Tim Alberts single and Mike Garcia scored Alberts and Wally Backman, Jr. (who had walked) with a double to make it 7-4.  Christian Lopez singled home Garcia and Johnson hit Eric Scriven with a pitch to put the tying runs on.

Andy Shipman (4-2) came on to try and settle the game down, but Adam Klein greeted him with a run-scoring double to get the lead to one and put runners at second and third with one out.  Rob Dahlberg singled to score the tying run and Shipman hit Rios with a pitch to load the bases.  That brought up Thon, who grounded one weakly to shortstop where the RailCats only play was first and Klein scored the winning run from third.

The RailCats led throughout, starting in the second inning when Rob Marconi hit his first of two two-run home runs.  Marconi’s second homer made the score 7-1 in the seventh, and Garret Holleran left after seven innings feeling good about getting his fourth victory.  Holleran allowed just six hits and one earned run in his 7.0 innings, walking one and striking out four.  Tristan Facer came on in relief of Holleran and retired the side in order in the eighth, getting two strikeouts.

The six-run lead was the largest coughed up by the RailCats this season and snapped an eight-game ‘Cats winning streak over the JackHammers that dated all the way back to June 7.  The RailCats lost for just the fifth time in 19 games against Joliet this season and fell into a first place tie with Fargo-Moorhead atop the league standings.

Marconi’s two home run game was his first since June 18, 2007 while a member of the Windy City Thunderbolt, and Wednesday was also his first four-RBI night since that game.  Anthony Esquer also had three hits for the RailCats, who finished with 12 hits in the game.  Tim Alberts went 4-4 to pace Joliet, as Drew Shetrone (3-1) earned the unlikely win with a scoreless eighth.

The RailCats (51-35) move to North Dakota this weekend to start a big series three-game place Fargo-Moorhead (50-34)Friday night at 7:02 p.m.  Tony Cogan (7-6, 3.78 ERA) gets the start for the ‘Cats against a to-be-announced RedHawks starter.  The game will be broadcast live on 89.1 FM, The Lakeshore, and online at www.railcatsbaseball.com.

Notes: The start of the game was delayed 1:44 by rain … the RailCats lost for the first time in 38 games when leading after seven innings … Johnson was charged with six of the seven ninth inning runs … Marconi’s two homer game was just the second by a RailCats player this season, joining Steve Haake, May 26 at Winnipeg.