(From Marion) With a 5-4 loss to visiting Fulton Tuesday, the 14-20 Bobcats will have to win outright during the regular season to hope for a .500 record, which would be the first in the team's five-year history. With only five days left in the season, Marion will travel to Madisonville Wednesday, Fulton for a double header on Thursday and finish out the regular season at home with a match against Owensboro on Friday and twin bill against the league-leading Hoppers on Saturday.
     Up 4.5 games on second-place Fulton (19-15), Hopkinsville's magic number to take the regular season title is 2, with any combinations of Hopper (24-11) wins or Railroader losses totaling that number handing the crown to first-year Hoptown. If the two teams end the season with identical 25-16 records, however, Fulton would take first place by virtue of beating Hoptown six of 10 times during the regular season.
     In third place, Tradewater can only hope second, but could finish as low as fourth. With five games remaining and only 1.5 games behind second-place Fulton, the 18-17 Pirates control their own destiny with two head-to-head matches remaining with the Railroaders. Marion, 3.5 games in back of the Pirates, have only one match remaining with their rival.
     At 9.5 games off the pace, the Bobcats are officially eliminated from first place, but can still finished in sole possession of second place if they win their remaining six games and Fulton (19-15) loses its half-dozen remaining game. The two teams go head-to-head twice on Thurday at Lohaus Field. The two teams ended the season with 20-20 record, Marion would take second place by virtue of a winning record against the Railroaders in regular season play.
     But Marion could still finish in last place, with only three games separating the Bobcats from last-place Owensboro (12-24) at 12.5 games out. The two teams meet one more time in the regular season.
     Regardless of their regular season finish, the Bobcats will have a crack at the post-season crown. The playoffs begin next Tuesday with the fifth-place team traveling to No. 4 for a one-game set to determine the next round of playoffs, which begin the following day.
     Meantime, on Tuesday, a late rally by the Bobcats fell just short at home against the Railroaders. Trailing 5-2 heading into the bottom of the eighth, Marion tacked on two runs courtesy of a two-RBI single off the bat of Cole Prejean to close the gap to 5-4. However, the Railroader bullpen shut down the rally in the ninth, setting the Bobcats down 1-2-3 to end the game.
     Taking the loss, Darren Travers missed his bid for tying the team's single-season victory total of six. The 5-4 starter pitched eight strong innings, however, giving up only two earned runs of the five scored against him. Tuesday was his ninth start of the year.
     At the plate, three Bobcats earned two hits—Prejean, leadoff hitter Tyler Bernard and Tyler Bonaventure. Marion piled on 10 hits, but left seven runners on base for the night. Clint Ambrosch and Greg Liming each hand an RBI. Liming's only hit of the night was his ninth double, only one behind the league leader.
     Bernard and Ambrocsh were among the league's top hitters coming into the night, batting .350 and .347 respectively. Bernard also had the second-highest number of hits in the league at 42, only four behind the league leader, and is tied with Liming with nine doubles.
     With four home runs and 21 RBI, Bonaventure is among the league leaders in each category and heads the Bobcats in both stats.