Miners Score Walk-Off Win in Doubleheader Split
May 20, 2018 - Frontier League (FL)
Southern Illinois Miners News Release
Marion, IL - The Southern Illinois Miners came back from down 3-0 in the fifth inning of game one of Saturday's doubleheader against the River City Rascals at Rent One Park to win 4-3 on John Holland's walk-off single in the seventh inning before the visitors won 4-2 in the second contest, splitting the twin-bill down the middle.
River City scored all three of their runs in the first contest with two outs in the second inning against Miners game one starter Geno Encina, but the right-hander would settle down from there. After Stephen Kerr's RBI double capped the rally, Encina did not permit another Rascal hit in working six innings with five strikeouts in an eventual no-decision. Southern Illinois' offense began the comeback in the bottom of the fifth inning when Luis Jean hit his first Miners homer off of former Miner Josh Kimborowicz to make it 3-1 Rascals.
In the next inning, Holland led off with a triple, and Chance Shepard smacked a game-tying, two-run blast to left field that knotted the score at 3-3. In the bottom of the seventh inning, after Kyle Tinius (1-0) worked a scoreless inning of relief, Jean and Marc DiLeo hit back-to-back singles, setting the Miners up with runners at second and third base with only one out. Corey Dempster was intentionally walked, and Holland singled over the drawn-in infield to win it for Southern Illinois in the club's first walk-off of the season.
In game two, it was the Miners taking command with a second-inning lead, as Joe Dudek opened the scoring with a run-scoring double down the right field line at 1-0. Two batters later, Conor Sullivan singled Dudek home for a 2-0 cushion. Former major leaguer Williams Perez struck out four batters in a row in his first two innings for the Miners, but ran into trouble in the third inning as the Rascals plated two runs on an infield hit by Kerr and a sacrifice fly by Mike Jurgella.
Perez then settled in, and ended up striking out seven batters in five innings of work, one off of a career-best. The score remained tied at 2-2 until the top of the fifth, when River City took the lead at 3-2 on a throwing error during a double-steal play. The Rascals then added to the lead and made it 4-2 on an inside-the-park homer by Zach Lavy. In the seventh, Southern Illinois loaded the bases with one out, putting the tying run in scoring position and the winning run on base, but back-to-back strikeouts ended the game.
The Miners and Rascals will now decide the weekend series with a rubber match on Sunday at 5:05 p.m. Billy Griffin will take the mound for the second time in 2018 for the Miners while Scott Grist will pitch for River City.
The Southern Illinois Miners are the Frontier League's winningest franchise since debuting in 2007, winning the 2012 Frontier League Championship as well as division titles in 2010, 2014, 2015 and 2016. They have been awarded the Frontier League Organization of the Year award three times since their inception, and also set a new Frontier League attendance record in their inaugural season. For ticket information, contact the box office at (618) 998-8499. For additional information, visit our website at www.siminers.com.
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