Miners Stumble in Series Opener
Published on July 6, 2021 under Frontier League (FL)
Southern Illinois Miners News Release
Marion, IL - The Southern Illinois Miners got a quality start from Michael Austin on the mound, but could not muster up enough offense on Tuesday night at Rent One Park, losing 3-2 in 10 innings to the Gateway Grizzlies in the series opener.
Neither team scored until the top of the fourth, when Chase Vallot hit a solo home run off Austin to make it 1-0. The right-hander would settle down, however, and pitch into the seventh inning for the second time this season while striking out six. In the sixth inning, the Miners would tie the game by loading the bases with no one out on a double by Carson Bartels, a single by Yeltsin Gudiño, and a walk by Nolan Earley before a Gianfranco Wawoe sacrifice fly tied the score at 1-1.
In the top of the seventh, Gateway would use a one-out walk off Austin, a stolen base, and a single from Nick Rotola followed by an error to go in front 2-1. But the Miners would respond in the bottom half, as Luke Mangieri went deep to right field for a solo home run, knotting the score again at 2-2.
Both teams' bullpens took over from there, with the Miners getting two scoreless innings from Blake Stelzer and Gateway receiving scoreless innings from Tanner Cable and Carlos Vega (3-1), sending the game to extra innings. In the top half of the tenth with the international tiebreaker in effect, the Grizzlies went ahead 3-2 on Justin Jones' RBI single, scoring the automatic runner from second base. In the bottom of the inning, Gudiño moved the automatic runner Bartels to third base with a bunt, but the Miners could not score him, suffering the close defeat.
The Miners will look to bounce back on Wednesday night at 7:05 p.m. at Rent One Park, with Kaleb Schmidt on the mound against Grizzlies right-hander Drew Clavenna.
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