Miners Come up Just Short in Loss to Evansville
June 27, 2021 - Frontier League (FL)
Southern Illinois Miners News Release
Marion, IL - The Southern Illinois Miners nearly came back from a 6-0, seventh-inning deficit, scoring four times in the seventh and one more in the ninth, but could not bring the tying run in as the Evansville Otters survived by a final score of 6-5 at Rent One Park on Sunday night.
The Otters got the lead in the second inning- after Miners starter Trent Johnson (0-3) walked three straight with two outs to load the bases, he broke the bat of Josh Henderson, but the ball found space to get down to the turf for an RBI infield hit, making the score 1-0 early.
Evansville would then add two more in the fourth inning on a single by Christopher Pujols to stretch the lead to 3-0, and took a 4-0 advantage on a wind-blown solo home run to left field off the bat of Dakota Phillips, chasing Johnson from the game after five and one-third innings and a career-high seven strikeouts.
In the top of the seventh inning against Stevie Ledesma, the Otters then scratched across two more runs on an RBI single by J.R. Davis and a passed ball later in the inning, taking a 6-0 lead entering the seventh-inning stretch. But the Miners, who were held to three hits to that point by Tim Holdgrafer (3-1), would respond in the bottom of the frame.
Gianfranco Wawoe was hit by a pitch leading off, and Nolan Earley singled before Jared Mang got the Miners on the board with a two-run double down the third base line, making the score 6-2. After a groundout, Holdgrafer departed in favor of Tyler Spring, and pinch-hitter Ryan Stacy and John Cable greeted him with back-to-back walks, loading the bases. After a pop-out for the second out of the inning, Yeltsin Gudiño came up with another two-run base hit, a single, pulling the Miners within 6-4 and putting the tying runs on base.
The Miners would get no closer that inning, but after scoreless frames from Ledesma and Blake Stelzer, Southern Illinois continued their comeback in the ninth against Logan Sawyer. With one out, Cable lofted a single to center field and went to second base on a single by Carson Bartels. Cable moved to third on the second out of the inning, and down to his final strike, Luke Mangieri came through with an RBI single to center field, making the score 6-5, moving the tying run into scoring position, and putting the winning run on base.
But the rally ended there, as Sawyer got a pop-out to shortstop to end the game as the Otters escaped with a rubber match win. Mang led the way for the Miners by tying his season- and career-high with three hits, including two doubles and two RBIs, while Mangieri and Bartels both had two hits in the narrow defeat.
Southern Illinois next heads on the road, kicking off a seven-game trip on Monday, June 28, in Sauget against the Gateway Grizzlies. Zac Westcott will start in the series opener, with first pitch at 6:45 p.m.
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