Kines Dominates as Miners Win Series over Gateway
July 8, 2021 - Frontier League (FL)
Southern Illinois Miners News Release
Marion, IL - The Southern Illinois Miners received a stellar start on the mound from Gunnar Kines on Thursday night against the Gateway Grizzlies while the offense pounded out 16 hits as they claimed the series with a 7-1 decision at Rent One Park.
Kines (1-2) was dominant from the outset of the game, striking out five batters in the first two innings while working around a pair of singles. He then got a double-play ground ball to work around another hit in the top of the third, and would cruise the rest of the way, retiring the final 13 batters he faced in the game. The southpaw capped off his first win as a Miner by striking out the side in order in the seventh to finish with 11 for the game over seven shutout innings, tying a career-high set in 2019 while pitching for the Schaumburg Boomers.
Meanwhile, the Miners offense went to work against Gateway starter Jorge Tavarez (2-3). With one out in the second inning, three straight singles brought in the Miners' first run of the game, with the RBI going to Anthony Brocato. In the next inning, it was Yeltsin Gudiño who singled with one out to bring up Nolan Earley, and he blasted a two-run home run into the visiting bullpen to make the score 3-0 Southern Illinois.
After a Gianfranco Wawoe single, the Miners got another two-run homer off the bat of Luke Mangieri later that same inning, adding to the lead and making the score 5-0. Southern Illinois would get their final runs off Tavarez in the fifth inning on a two-out, two-run single from Ian Walters that made the score 7-0. In total, the Miners finished with 15 hits off the Grizzlies starter in just six innings on the night.
Gateway was able to break up the shutout in the ninth inning with an RBI single from Andres Regnault, but Joey Pulido finished off the Grizzlies in the frame as the Miners won the series by taking the final two games, out-scoring the visitors 21-4 across the two contests.
Offensively, seven of the nine Miners hitters finished with multiple hits, with Brocato tying his career-high and Gudiño tying his season-best with three hits apiece to lead a 16-hit charge. Led by Kines' 11 batters fanned, Southern Illinois' pitching staff finished with a season-high 13 strikeouts as well in the big win.
Now winners of four of their last five games, the Miners will look to keep momentum rolling as the home stand continues against the Joliet Slammers on Friday, July 9, at 7:05 p.m. Chase Cunningham will pitch in the series opener, opposed by the Slammers' Cam Aufderheide on Military Appreciation Night, presented by People's National Bank, River Radio, and WPSD Local 6, with the largest fireworks show of the summer to follow the game.
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