Miners Sweep Doubleheader, Series from Slammers
July 11, 2021 - Frontier League (FL)
Southern Illinois Miners News Release
Marion, IL - The Southern Illinois Miners won their fourth and fifth games in a row on Sunday at Rent One Park by sweeping a doubleheader from the Joliet Slammers, winning 6-1 in the first contest before coming back for a 2-1 home run derby win in the nightcap, earning a series sweep in the process.
The Miners got the first run of the day immediately in game one, as Joliet starter Austin Shea (1-5) walked Jarrod Watkins, who then stole second base, went to third on an RBI single by Yeltsin Gudino, and came home on a wild pitch to make it 1-0. Michael Austin (2-3) then took it from there, as the right-hander tossed five shutout innings on the mound, walking two and striking out six to keep the Slammers at bay.
Southern Illinois would add insurance thanks to a two-run home run in the fourth by Jared Mang, and three more runs in the fifth on an RBI single by Gianfranco Wawoe as well as a sacrifice fly by Luke Mangieri, making the score 6-0. Joliet would get one run back in the top of the sixth, but would get no closer as the Miners clinched the series win.
In the second game, Trent Johnson was brilliant on the mound for the Miners, allowing just one Slammer to reach base in his first five innings with five strikeouts. Unfortunately, that Slammer was Brian Parreira, who hit a solo home run down the left field line to make it 1-0 in the second inning. Southern Illinois threatened that lead in the third and fourth innings before finally breaking through to tie the game in the fifth on a sacrifice fly by Wawoe, knotting the score at 1-1.
But after Johnson departed the game in the top of the sixth after a one-out single, Dylan Hardy came up and gave the Slammers the lead with a two-run home run off Blake Stelzer to make it 3-1 Joliet. Undaunted, Southern Illinois kept coming, as an error by Lane Baremore allowed Ian Walters to reach second base in the bottom of the sixth, and he would score to make it a 3-2 game on a clutch RBI single by Anthony Brocato.
The game then went to the seventh, and against Slammers relief ace Trevor Charpie, Nolan Earley slammed a game-tying solo home run to right field, making it 3-3 in dramatic fashion. With the international tiebreaker in effect in the eighth, neither team scored any runs, sending the contest to a home run derby. The Miners took an early lead in the derby on Mangieri's homer. Parreira then hit a home run as the last hitter of the first round to tie it up for Joliet, but Earley stepped up again as the Miners' last scheduled hitter in the round, and cracked the game-winning blast to right-center field, giving the Miners the series sweep.
Now winners of seven of their last eight games overall, Southern Illinois will look to keep up their winning ways when they head up to Crestwood, Illinois on Tuesday to begin a six-game road trip with a three-game series against the Windy City ThunderBolts, with first pitch scheduled for 7:05 p.m.
Frontier League Stories from July 11, 2021
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