FL Southern Illinois Miners

Gates' Three Homers Power Miners to Win at Gateway

Published on June 8, 2016 under Frontier League (FL)
Southern Illinois Miners News Release


Marion, Ill. - The Southern Illinois Miners won for the fourth time in their last five games on Tuesday night at GCS Ballpark in Sauget, getting a historic three-homer game from Aaron Gates to notch the comeback victory by a final score of 5-4 in the opener of a three-game series and seven-game road trip. With the three long balls, Gates became the first Miner ever to hit three home runs in a single game.

Things started off rocky for Southern Illinois as starter Dyllon Nuernberg surrendered a two-run homer to Craig Massoni for a quick 2-0 lead for the home team. After the Miners were able to get an unearned run thanks to an error on Massoni with two outs in the top of the second, Gateway got that run back when a leadoff walk and hit batter plus a sacrifice fly made the score 3-1 Grizzlies after two innings.

Nuernberg (1-0) would settle down, however, and when Gates came up in the fifth with a man on and one out, he launched his first homer of the game deep over the right field fence to tie the game at 3-3. Nuernberg would continue to hold the Grizzlies' offense down, as after stranding two baserunners in the third and fourth, the starter sent down eight batters in a row from the fifth to the seventh innings.

In the meantime, Gates would clobber his second homer of the game in the top of the seventh leading off against southpaw reliever Jon Jones (0-1) to give the Miners a 4-3 lead. After Nuernberg walked a batter with two outs in the seventh, the Miners went to their bullpen. A single by Vin Guglietti off Kyle Tinius put the tying run in scoring position, but Nick Palacios got Blake Brown to fly out to center to preserve the lead.

After Evan Mott got out of a jam with the tying run in scoring position in the eighth, Gates strode to the plate again and on the first pitch from Nate Carter hit his third home run of the game, a solo shot to right-center, becoming the first Miners player ever to accomplish the feat in the 10-year history of the team. That proved to be huge, as the Grizzlies scratched across a run against Jake Cose in the ninth to make it 5-4, but Cose would strike out Brown and get Brandon Thomas to fly out to end the game with the tying and winning runs on base for his third save.

Nuernberg pitched six and two-thirds and fanned seven to earn his first win as a Miner while Gates finished 4-for-5 with three runs scored and four RBIs. The Miners will look for the series win on Wednesday morning at 11:35 a.m., sending Josh Kimborowicz to the hill against Gateway right-hander Vince Molesky.

The Southern Illinois Miners are the back-to-back Frontier League East Division Champions and the 2012 Frontier League Champions. 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 2007, their inaugural season. For ticket information, contact the Rent One Park box office at (618) 998-8499. For any additional information, visit our website at www.southernillinoisminers.com.

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Frontier League Stories from June 8, 2016


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