Grizzlies Lose Heartbreaker on Walk-Off
August 8, 2018 - Frontier League (FL)
Gateway Grizzlies News Release
NORMAL, Ill. - The Gateway Grizzlies held an 8-5 lead going to the bottom of the ninth inning Tuesday night, but the Normal CornBelters scored four runs on four hits and a walk to win, 9-8, in the series opener at The Corn Crib.
Gateway (33-42) has lost seven games on walk-off hits in 2018.
Blake Brown hit his 15th home run of the year - a two-run shot in the Grizzlies' four-run second inning - and Justin Ellison added a solo homer of his own as Gateway piled up a 6-2 lead in the first three innings.
Normal (38-32) scored three unanswered runs to bring the Grizzlies' lead down to 6-5 after five innings.
Gateway bounced back, though, with insurance runs in the eighth and ninth innings. Trae Santos' single drove in Shane Mardirosian to make it 7-5, then the Grizzlies took an 8-5 lead in the ninth on Jeff Cardenas' RBI single to knock home Audie Afenir. Mardirosian and Afenir had both doubled.
Chris Metrick, Patrick Boyle and Josh Glick combined to toss three scoreless innings out of the Grizzlies' bullpen.
Grant Black (1-3) took the loss.
After a CornBelters single to start the bottom of the ninth, the Grizzlies nearly turned a double play but were forced to settle for one out. With a man on and the top of the order coming up, James Davison Jr. and Santiago Chirino singled to load the bases. Derrick Loveless walked to bring in a run and cut the Grizzlies' lead to 8-6.
Andrew Godbold capped the CornBelters' rally with a three-run double to the wall in left-center field.
Each of the first four Normal batters in the ninth faced an 0-2 count. All but one singled.
Brown finished 2-for-3 with two walks. In 19 career hometown games at The Corn Crib, the Bloomington-Normal native has nine home runs and 25 RBIs with a .338 batting average.
Mardirosian had the only other multi-hit game for Gateway, but every Grizzlie in the starting lineup had at least one hit.
Gateway and Normal will play game two of their three-game series Wednesday at 7:05 p.m.
Frontier League Stories from August 8, 2018
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- Freedom Take Game 2 over Rascals - River City Rascals
- Upcoming Home Stand - Normal CornBelters
- CornBelters Add Jess Amedee - Normal CornBelters
- Shepard's Ninth-Inning Blast Walks off Otters - Southern Illinois Miners
- Grizzlies Lose Heartbreaker on Walk-Off - Gateway Grizzlies
- Romero pitches shutout in Windy City - Lake Erie Crushers
- Otters Fall in Walk-Off Fashion to Miners - Evansville Otters
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