Grizzlies Even Critical Series with Boomers
August 26, 2023 - Frontier League (FL)
Gateway Grizzlies News Release
Schaumburg, IL - The Gateway Grizzlies played yet another back-and-forth contest at Wintrust Field against the Schaumburg Boomers on Saturday night, and after coming up one run short in a 7-6 defeat on Friday, recorded a 7-6 win of their own to even the crucial weekend series in front of a Schaumburg-record crowd of 7,914 fans.
The home team got on the board in this one on Chase Dawson's RBI single in the bottom of the first inning, but Gateway responded right away in their half of the second. Clint Freeman led off with a double and Andrew Penner walked, followed by a ground ball by D.J. Stewart to third base that Will Prater threw high to second for an error, scoring Freeman and tying the game at 1-1. Two batters later, Mark Vierling lifted a sacrifice fly to center field to give the Grizzlies a 2-1 lead.
Gateway would expand that lead to 3-1 on an RBI double by Kyle Gaedele in the top of the fourth, but an ugly inning in the bottom half allowed Schaumburg to come all the way back and take the lead again. A leadoff walk was one of three free passes in the inning issued by Joey Gonzalez, and the Grizzlies compounded them with two errors defensively as well, as the home team scored four runs to take a 5-3 lead in front of the raucous crowd.
But again, the Grizzlies showed resiliency. Jairus Richards was hit by the first pitch of the next half-inning by Boomers starter Juan Pichardo, and Eric Rivera walked to put the tying runs on base. Cole Brannen moved the runners on a sacrifice bunt, and Freeman hit a ground ball to Dawson at second base to score Richards and make it 5-4. After a pitching change, Cristian Lopez (5-3) threw a wild pitch to Penner, scoring Rivera to tie up the game.
In the sixth inning, Gateway would take the lead for good. Gaedele led off with a single, went to second on a wild pitch, and scored on Vierling's RBI double for a 6-5 lead. Later in the inning, Richards singled Vierling home for a 7-5 advantage. After a pair of scoreless frames from Nathanial Tate (1-1), the Boomers would then score in the seventh against Trevor Tietz, but the reliever struck out two batters to hold the lead.
After Brian Eichhorn followed Tietz by striking out the side in a perfect eighth inning, in the ninth, a leadoff error on Vierling, the Grizzlies' fifth of the game, put the tying run on base and brought the winning run to the plate. But Josh Lucas got the next three batters out to nail down the save, as Gateway took the huge victory.
Now three games ahead of the Boomers in the West Division once again, Gateway will look to win the series and increase their lead further in the standings in the rubber game of the set at Wintrust Field on Sunday, August 27, at 1:00 p.m. CT. Carson LaRue will get the ball in the Grizzlies' final road game of the 2023 regular season before the club returns to Sauget to close out their schedule with a seven-game home stand.
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