Miners Lead Wire-To-Wire In Victory Over Gateway
Published on July 13, 2014 under Frontier League (FL)
Southern Illinois Miners News Release
Marion, Ill. - The Southern Illinois Miners never trailed after taking an early 3-0 lead and tacked on three late runs in a 6-2 win over the Gateway Grizzlies at GCS Ballpark in Sauget, clinching the series on the road on Saturday night.
The win was not only the Miners' third win in a row both overall and at GCS Ballpark (they won 11-2 on June 19th in the finale of their earlier series this season with Gateway), but they also handed the Grizzlies, who came into the weekend with the best overall record in the Frontier League both overall and at home (22-6), consecutive losses in Sauget for the first time all season.
Center fielder Jay Austin would feature prominently in the Miners' win. In the first, he reached on an error, stole second and ended up scoring later in the frame on an RBI infield single by Marquis Riley to give the Miners a 1-0 lead. In the second inning, the Miners would widen their lead to 3-0. After Phil Butler reached on a one-out walk, Matt Howard shot a double down the right field line to put runners at second and third. Austin then drove both in with a two-run single.
Gateway would score the next two, getting one back in the second on an RBI single by T.J. Bennett and another in the fourth on a leadoff solo home run by Landon Hernandez off Miners' starter Tyler Lavigne (4-3). But Lavigne would then retire the next ten batters he would face until a one-out single in the seventh by Bennett chased him. Austin then came into play again, as when Xavier Macklin hit a deep drive to center field in the next at-bat, the Atlanta native made a running, over-the-shoulder catch to rob Macklin of extra bases.
Southern Illinois would then tack on two more in the eighth on a two-out, two run single by Austin, and one more in the ninth on a wild pitch to complete the scoring. Austin finished 2-for-4 with a run scored and a season-high four RBIs, while Aaron Gates went 3-for-5. Six of the nine Miners in the lineup scored a run, and seven of the nine had at least one hit. Lavigne got his first win on the mound since June 6th as well.
The Miners will go for the sweep on Sunday at 6:05 p.m., starting Matt Bywater in the final contest before the All-Star break against Gateway's Tucker Jensen.
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