Comeback Comes up Just Short as Grizzlies Lose at Lake Erie
Published on May 11, 2024 under Frontier League (FL)
Gateway Grizzlies News Release
Avon, Ohio - The Gateway Grizzlies came back from an early three-run deficit to take a 5-4 lead in the fifth inning on Saturday night, saw the Lake Erie Crushers plate seven unanswered runs, then nearly came back from that deficit late before falling 11-9 at Crushers Stadium in a wild, back-and-forth game.
Lake Erie again scored first, this time by plating three runs off Ryne Moore in the bottom of the first inning on RBI hits by Vincent Byrd, Jr., Ron Washington, Jr., and Jack Harris, taking a 3-0 lead. Gateway, though, would come back, as Jack-Thomas Wold hit a solo homer in his first Grizzlies at-bat to make it 3-1 in the second inning, and Andrew Moritz came through with a two-out RBI single in the third to cut the deficit to 3-2.
Lake Erie got a run back in the bottom of the third, but the Grizzlies kept coming. After Wold doubled with two outs in the fourth, D.J. Stewart drove him in with a single to make it 4-3. In the fifth inning, also with two outs, Peter Zimmermann doubled in Moritz and Michael Sandle to put the Grizzlies up 5-4.
That lead also would not hold, however, as the Crushers got both runs back in their half of the fifth, taking a 6-5 lead on Scout Knotts' two-out RBI single. Lake Erie then scored five times in the bottom of the seventh against Alvery De Los Santos, taking an 11-5 lead into the eighth inning.
Again, the Grizzlies would rally. In the eighth, Gateway loaded the bases for Moritz, who struck out swinging, but reached base on a wild pitch, scoring a runner from third to make it 11-6. Then, in the ninth, they put two more runners on base for Cole Brannen, who launched a three-run, two-out homer to right field, making the score 11-9 Crushers. Sandle, Gabe Holt, and Moritz all followed by reaching base, putting the tying run at second and the lead run at first base, but that is where the remarkable rally came to a close, with Zimmermann grounding out to end the game.
Wold finished 3-for-5 with three runs scored in his Grizzlies debut to lead the way offensively, while Brannen finished 2-for-4 with three RBIs, and Stewart ended up 2-for-4 with an RBI as well.
The Grizzlies will now look to win the series in the finale on Sunday, May 12, at 1:05 p.m. CT, with Collin Sullivan pitching against former Grizzlie Matt Mulhearn at Crushers Stadium.
Frontier League Stories from May 11, 2024
- Washington Drops Middle Game After Tough 8th - Washington Wild Things
- Comeback Comes up Just Short as Grizzlies Lose at Lake Erie - Gateway Grizzlies
- Bolts' Fast Start Leads to Win Over Tri-City - Windy City ThunderBolts
- Comeback Comes up Just Short as Grizzlies Lose at Lake Erie - Gateway Grizzlies
- Boomers Stage Another Comeback Win to Move to 2-0 - Schaumburg Boomers
- Offence Explodes Early, Titans Even Series - Ottawa Titans
- Otters Leave 10 Men on in Middle Game of Series - Evansville Otters
- ValleyCats Outhit ThunderBolts But Fall in the Middle Game - Tri-City ValleyCats
- Y'alls Hang on for Series Win - Florence Y'alls
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