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Red Land tops Texas team to advance to U.S. final

Little League to honor Pennsylvania State Police

Two weeks ago, Pawtucket outfielder Jonathan Roof let a ball hit by Scranton/Wilkes-Barre&#8217;s Ben Gamel get past him for a walk-off inside-the-park home run.On Wednesday night, Roof avenged that miscue lacing a run-scoring hit in the bottom of the 10th inning leading the PawSox to a 4-3 win sending the first-place RailRiders to their third straight loss.The SWB loss coupled with Rochester&#8217;s 6-0 win over Syracuse trims the lead in the International North Division to 5.5 games, while the magic number remains at eight.The Red Sox, who have the worst record in the International League with 80 losses became the first Pawtucket team to sweep a series of three games or more at McCoy Stadium against a Yankees-affiliated Scranton/Wilkes-Barre team in the nine years since it took over the franchise. It marks the first time the franchise was swept in Pawtucket since the Red Barons lost three in a row in 2006.The RailRiders, who were 2 for 10 with runners in scoring position and left nine runners on base, had runners on first and third with one out in the top of the tenth, but Aaron Judge struck out and Slade Heathcott flied out to end the inning.SWB took a 2-0 lead in the top of the second on run-scoring singles by Kyle Roller and Ben Gamel, but Pawtucket came right back to tie the game in the bottom of the frame.Heathcott scored on an error in the top of the fourth as the RailRiders regained the lead at 3-2, but again the PawSox answered to tie it up in the bottom of the fifth.Making his Triple-A debut, left-hander Caleb Smith yielded three runs before getting pulled with one out in the fifth, but he allowed several baserunners giving up five hits and five walks leaving with 109 pitches thrown.RailRiders catcher Gary Sanchez, who has been heating up lately after a mini slump entering Wednesday on a five-game hitting streak going 9 for 22 in that span, was pulled from the game in the fifth inning after clutching his right leg trying to beat out a double play.The RailRiders return home tonight to face Lehigh Valley in a doubleheader starting at 5:35 with the second game following 20 minutes afterward. Scheduled to pitch in the two seven-inning games are SWB righty Kyle Davies (9-7, 3.52) versus IronPigs lefty Jesse Biddle (2-3, 5.85) in the opener, while lefty Chaz Hebert (1-0, 1.80) takes the hill for the RailRiders in the nightcap against a starter to be announced.<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta>Times Leader</bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta>Reach Times Leader sports at 570-829-7143 or on Twitter @TLsports</shirttailMeta></div>

RailRiders swept out of Pawtucket