Miners Take Thriller Over Windy City
July 11, 2014 - Frontier League (FL)
Southern Illinois Miners News Release
Marion, Ill. - The Southern Illinois Miners got walk-off single by Tyler Booth in the 17th inning to beat the Windy City Thunderbolts 7-6 and end a marathon game at Rent One Park in the early hours of Friday morning, the second game this season that has gone 17 frames for Southern Illinois.
Booth's sac fly ended a game that tied the Miners' win against Joliet on June 5th for longest game in the Frontier League this season by innings, and surpassed that game for longest game by elapsed time with a total of five hours and twenty-seven minutes needed to complete the game.
Windy City had a 4-0 lead after the first inning, but the Miners came all the way back with four in the second. Steve Marino hit an RBI double to bring home Aaron Gates with the first run, and Jay Austin, Matt Howard and Frank Martinez followed later that inning with back-to-back-to-back RBI hits, with Martinez's triple scoring Howard and tying the game at 4-4.
Windy City took the lead again with two in the fifth inning off of Michael Carden, but the Miners would again respond. In the seventh, Howard led off with a single and stole second base. He moved to third on Martinez's groundout to second, leading to Ryan Cavan's RBI double to make it 6-5. After a flyout by Chris Burke advanced Cavan to third, Gates came through with two outs, singling to tie the game at 6-6.
That's the way it stayed for 10 more innings. Both teams had numerous opportunities to take the lead. The visitors' most-serious threat came in the 11th against Derrick Miramontes. A leadoff walk and a sacrifice plus a throwing error put runners at first and third with no one out. But on a sharp ground ball back up the middle, Miramontes blindly stabbed it with his glove behind his back and tossed to first for the first out. Jon Mestas then hit a fly ball to right field, and with Andrew Brauer coming home on the play, a tremendous throw by Howard nailed him at the plate to end the inning in dramatic fashion.
The Miners, meanwhile, had the go-ahead/winning run in scoring position in every single inning from the eighth to the 17th except for one, leaving 23 men on base for the game, 16 of which were in extra innings. Before the winning rally in the 17th inning, the Miners most-serious threat came in the 16th, after Phil Butler singled and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt. Cavan then almost won it with a two-out single to right, but Brauer made a strong throw himself to home plate to nab Butler and keep the game tied.
In the 17th, Burke and Gates drew walks off reliever Eli Anderson (0-5), and after Marino laid down a sacrifice, Booth came through to give the Miners the series win, two games to one, their ninth series win in a row at Rent One Park.
Austin led the Miners' offense with a 4-for-7 game, the second four-hit game of the season for Southern Illinois, which also got three hits from Howard and Marino (tying his season-high) in the contest. In addition, Gates, Martinez and Cavan had two-hit games, with Cavan reaching base six total times on two hits, three walks and a hit-by-pitch.
After Carden surrendered all six Windy City runs, the Miners' bullpen held strong as well, throwing 11 scoreless innings total between James Bierlein, Stew Brase, Miramontes and David Kubiak (4-1). Southern Illinois improved to 21-9 at home with the win as well, and registered their fifth walk-off victory.
The Miners head to Sauget on Friday for a game at 7:05 p.m. against the Gateway Grizzlies, the start of a three-game series before the All-Star break on the road. Rick Teasley will go for the Miners against Tyler Thompson for Gateway.
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