Grizzlies Walk off Crushers in Sudden Death
July 9, 2022 - Frontier League (FL)
Gateway Grizzlies News Release
Avon, OH - In their first experience with the new "sudden death" rule in the Frontier League, the Gateway Grizzlies beat the Lake Erie Crushers 2-1 on a walk-off single by Andrew Penner, bouncing back on Saturday night at Mercy Health Stadium.
It was a pitcher's duel the whole way, as both J.P. Williams and Joseph Sgambelluri tossed seven innings in the game. Williams tied his career-high with the seven innings pitched, and shut out the Crushers over that span as well with three strikeouts, retiring the final nine batters he faced in the game.
Sgambelluri was almost as good, giving up just one run in the top of the fifth when the Grizzlies loaded the bases with no outs for Jackson Pritchard, who brought in the game's first run on a double-play ground ball to second base for a 1-0 Gateway lead.
The lead held until the bottom of the eighth, when Jackson Valera snuck a game-tying solo home run just over the wall in the left field corner to make it 1-1. Both teams then got the lead run on base in the ninth inning, and the Crushers got the winning run to third base with one out, but John Murphy (1-2) got a ground ball to shortstop and a strikeout to send it to extra innings.
After Gateway did not score in the International Tiebreaker in the tenth inning, Murphy again faced the winning run at third base with two outs, but struck out Jake Gitter to send the game to "sudden death" baseball.
Home manager Cam Roth chose to pitch, as the Grizzlies got a runner at first base to start the sudden death inning with a chance to win if they scored. Cam Touchette then walked to move the winning run to second base with no outs, and Abdiel Diaz sacrificed the runners to second and third base, bringing up Penner, who lined a single to right field to get the win for the Grizzlies.
Gateway will look to win the series in a rubber game on Sunday, July 10, as they finish off their road trip. Brendan Feldmann will get the ball in the finale against Julio Vivas for the Crushers, with first pitch at 4:35 p.m. CT at Mercy Health Stadium.
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