Bragg Walks off Gateway, Miners Win Third Straight
June 29, 2018 - Frontier League (FL)
Southern Illinois Miners News Release
Marion, IL - The Southern Illinois Miners won their third game in a row on Friday night at Rent One Park, beating the Gateway Grizzlies 6-5 on Harrison Bragg's walk-off single in the bottom of the ninth inning.
Both teams opened the scoring right away. After Shane Mardirosian's leadoff solo homer off Miners starter Steven Ridings in the top of the first inning, the Miners roared back in the bottom of the frame. With two men on against Gateway starter Will Anderson, Chance Shepard unleashed a deep three-run homer over the left-center field wall to vault the Miners in front 3-1. Later in the frame, with two outs, Bragg delivered an RBI single to make the score 4-1.
Gateway got a run back in the top of the second inning, but Ridings would limit the damage and settle down from there, eventually pitching five and two-thirds innings in his home debut for the Miners and surrendering only two earned runs. Joe Duncan assisted by extending the Miners' lead to 5-2 with his first professional homer, a solo shot in the fourth inning. Anderson also settled in after that and ended up completing seven innings, limiting the Miners' offense in the middle frames.
The Grizzlies, however, were also able to tie the game as a sac fly in the fifth by Jhonniel Alvarez and an RBI groundout in the seventh inning by Mardirosian made it 5-4. Against Michael Starcevich in the ninth, the Grizzlies rallied and tied the game at 5-5 on Mardirosian's two-out single, his third run driven in of the contest. But Starcevich (2-1) held the line there with a strikeout of Artemis Kadkhodaian to strand two runners on base and send it to the bottom of the ninth.
In the frame, Ben Moore led off and reached second base on a throwing error by Kadkhodaian at third as the ball sailed into the stands. That set up Bragg, who took the second pitch he saw from reliever Chris Metrick (0-1) down the line fair over third base for the Miners' second consecutive walk-off victory and their third overall to move within a half-game of first place in the Frontier League's West Division.
Bragg finished 2-for-4 with two RBIs, while Duncan homered and doubled, going 2-for-4 with two runs scored and an RBI in the game. The Miners will look to extend their win streak to four games and look to take the series in the second contest on Saturday, June 30th at 6:05 p.m. Austin Dubsky will make the start for the Miners on the mound with Gateway sending Max MacNabb to the hill.
The Southern Illinois Miners are the Frontier League's winningest franchise since debuting in 2007, winning the 2012 Frontier League Championship as well as division titles in 2010, 2014, 2015 and 2016. They have been awarded the Frontier League Organization of the Year award three times since their inception, and also set a new Frontier League attendance record in their inaugural season. For ticket information, contact the box office at (618) 998-8499. For additional information, visit our website at www.siminers.com.
Frontier League Stories from June 29, 2018
- Bragg Walks off Gateway, Miners Win Third Straight - Southern Illinois Miners
- Freedom Cream CornBelters in Opener - Florence Y'alls
- Grizzlies Drop Tight Battle to Miners - Gateway Grizzlies
- CornBelters Drop First Night of Jose Canseco Weekend - Normal CornBelters
- Crushers Offense Slowed Down in Loss to Joliet - Lake Erie Crushers
- Beach Bums Hang on to Early Lead for Win in Windy City - Traverse City Beach Bums
- ThunderBolts Rally Late But Fall 5-3 to Traverse City - Windy City ThunderBolts
- Slammers Open Series vs Lake Erie with Win - Joliet Slammers
- Wild Things Drop Game 1 of Series to Schaumburg 13-4 - Washington Wild Things
- Otters Bats Come up Short in Loss to River City - Evansville Otters
- Rascals Take Opener over Otters - River City Rascals
- Boomers Blister Wild Things - Schaumburg Boomers
- Belters Add Sidearmer Tyler Frohwirth - Normal CornBelters
The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.
