Grizzlies Win Fourth Straight, Take Opener from Windy City
FL Gateway Grizzlies

Grizzlies Win Fourth Straight, Take Opener from Windy City

July 25, 2025 - Frontier League (FL)
Gateway Grizzlies News Release


CRESTWOOD, ILL. - The Gateway Grizzlies kept their winning ways going, improving to 4-0 on their road trip in Chicago by taking down the Windy City ThunderBolts 6-1 on Friday night at Ozinga Field.

Tasked with facing ThunderBolts' ace Buddie Pindel (4-6) in the conetst, the Grizzlies opened the scoring early in the top of the second inning. D.J. Stewart doubled inside the first base bag, and went to third base on a bunt single by Victor Castillo. With runner at the corners and no outs, an RBI groundout by Dale Thomas scored Stewart to make it 1-0, and after Castillo stole third base moments later, he came in to score on a sacrifice fly by Edwin Mateo for a 2-0 advantage.

In the fourth inning, Cole Brannen stayed hot with a two-out double, and he scored one pitch later on an RBI single by Jose Alvarez in his return to the lineup, making the score 3-0. Then, in the sixth with Thomas on first base, Brannen singled into center field with one out, with Michael Sandle committing a fielding error that allowed Thomas to come all the way around to score, increasing the Gateway lead to 4-0.

All the early offense gave Gage Vailes (4-1) stout run support, with the right-hander bouncing back on the mound by allowing just one hit and striking out six in his first five innings of work. Windy City got on the board in the sixth on an RBI double by James Dunlap to make it a 4-1 ballgame, but Gateway responded right away in the top of the seventh on a two-out RBI double by Castillo, pushing the lead back to four runs at 5-1, and knocking Pindel out of the game.

Things got tense in the bottom of the seventh, as Leoni De La Cruz walked the bases loaded with two outs in the frame, but with the tying run at the plate, Matt Hickey struck out Sandle to preserve the Grizzlies lead, and proceeded to retire all six batters he faced the rest of the way while amassing a career-high six strikeouts to earn the save.

The Grizzlies' final run came in the ninth, when Abdiel Diaz crushed a solo home run to right field to extend his hit streak to 10 games in a row as the Grizzlies improved to 11-1 in series openers away from Sauget in 2025.

Gateway will look to run their win streak to five and remain perfect on the road trip in the middle game of the weekend series on Saturday, July 26. Bennett Stice will make his first road start of the season for the Grizzlies, opposed by southpaw Isaac Milburn in his professional debut for Windy City. First pitch is scheduled for 6:05 p.m. CT at Ozinga Field.

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