RailRiders Are Triple-A National Champions

By John Ginder
- Tweet
- Pin It
Updated: September 21, 2016

Photo: Gabe Rodriguez/Legends On Deck

Chris Parmelee‘s first inning 3-run blast was all Scranton/WB needed to capture the Triple-A National Championship on Tuesday night. The RailRiders defeated the Pacific Coast League Champion El Paso Chihuahuas 3-1 at Autozone Park in Memphis, Tennessee.

After back-to-back singles by RailRiders Mark Payton and Clint Frazier to start the bottom of the first, Parmelee got out in front of a Walker Lockett offering and sent it to the grass burm in right field to put Scranton/WB out front 3-0.

“I didn’t know if it was going to go fair or foul. Once it cleared the fence, little did I know that those would be the only runs that we would score. I expected us to put up three or four more, but sometimes that’s just the way it goes. It was definitely a team win today, though” Parmalee said in a postgame interview.

Jordan Montgomery started the game for the RailRiders and pitched into the sixth inning, but was taken out after three straight singles by the Chihuahuas which cut Scranton/WB’s lead 3-1. Johnny Barbato came in the game for Montgomery and protected the lead getting the next three El Paso batters out in order. That would be the way the rest of the night went for the Chihuahua’s as the RailRiders bullpen didn’t allow another baserunner the rest of the game.

El Paso’s pitching kept them in the game the entire night, but the offense couldn’t really get anything going after the sixth inning.

With the National Championship, Scranton/WB capped off a tremendous season where they went 91-52. This was all done with many of the top players on the team getting promoted to the major leagues. They lost just one game throughout the playoffs and finished the season with the most wins throughout all of the minor leagues.

“Getting here is huge. It was a great year, it was a great team effort, starting at the top, down to all the players who came to our team. It was amazing” RailRiders manager Al Pedrique said after the game.

El Paso didn’t have as dominating a year, but the Chihuahua’s finished the season 73-70 which was good enough to capture the Pacific Coast Leagues Pacific Southern Division crown. Their run to the National Title game had to go through stops in Tacoma and Oklahoma City where they dropped just two games.

Top Performers

RailRiders
Chris Parmelee – 2 for 4, R, HR, 3 RBI
Clint Frazier – 2 for 4, R
RailRiders Bullpen – 4.0 IP, 0 H, 0 BB, 3 K

Chihuahuas
Manuel Margot – 1 for 4, R
Austin Hedges – 1 for 4, RBI

John Ginder

John has recently graduated from the University at Albany with a B.A. in History and is currently finishing his Master's Degree there as well in secondary education. After being away from school for over two decades he decided to go back and work towards his dream of becoming a social studies teacher.