FL Southern Illinois Miners

Miners Top Grizzlies in 12

Published on July 20, 2011 under Frontier League (FL)
Southern Illinois Miners News Release


MARION, Ill. - The Miners walked off to victory over the Grizzlies, 6-5, in 12 innings at Rent One Park on Wednesday night. Cannon Lester's clutch RBI double scored Will Block in the 12th inning to give the Miners their 34th win of the season. Clayton Dill grabbed his second win of the homestand after he worked a scoreless 12th inning. Jordan Cudney allowed the winning run and took the loss. With the win, the Miners took the rubber match from Gateway and lead the season series, 4-2, in 2011.

Will Block was hit by a pitch for the third time in the game to lead off the 12th inning for the Miners. It was his fifth time aboard on the night. After a Sean Coughlin deep flyout to left field, the stage was set for Cannon Lester. In his first at-bat of the night, Lester shot a ball into the huge right-centerfield gap, scoring Block from first base.

Ben Shivers kept the game tied through the 11th. He entered the game in the 10th inning and loaded the bases before recording an out. The righty allowed a leadoff single to DJ Fitzgerald. The next two batters, Logan Parker and Charlie Lisk, both reached on sacrifice bunts. Shivers struck out the next two batters and forced Brandon Peters to fly out to centerfield, ending the Gateway threat.

Chris Enourato entered the game for Gateway with a 5-4 lead in the ninth inning trying for his fourth save. He allowed a leadoff walk to Boomer Blanchard. Blanchard was then in motion when Sean Harrell hit a ground ball to the shortstop, and everybody was safe on the play. After Block was hit by a pitch for the second time on the night to load the bases, Sean Coughlin hit a deep sac fly to centerfield to tie the game at 5-5.

The Miners took a 2-0 lead in the first inning. It was just the second time on the six-game homestand that the Miners scored first. Eric Suttle led off the game win a single and then came around to score on the Sean Coughlin RBI single. Will Block reached base when he was hit by a pitch for the first time and scored on an RBI groundout by Ken Gregory.

Gateway answered back immediately with three runs of their own in the second inning. Brendon Malkowski issued a two-out walk to Nick Farnsworth. The next batter, Brian Harris, made him pay with a two-run home run, tying the game 2-2. Chris Sedon tripled to left field and then scored on Kent Gerst's RBI single to give Gateway their first lead, 3-2. The Grizzlies added an unearned run in the third, boosting their lead to 4-2 over the Miners after three innings.

Southern Illinois tied the game up once again in the fourth inning as Suttle doubled home Kent Walton then Will Block singled home Boomer Blanchard to knot the score at 4-4. The game didn't stay tied for long, as Charlie Lisk singled home DJ Fitzgerald in the fifth inning to give Gateway a 5-4 lead, which held until the ninth inning.

Starter Brendon Malkowski worked six innings for the Miners. He allowed five runs, only four of them earned, off seven hits. The big righty struck out three and walked two.

The Miners offense struck for four runs off eight hits against Gateway starter Brad Stone, who entered the game with a 7.67 ERA on the season. Stone struck out three and walked three and remains winless in 2011.

First baseman Gordie Gronkowski left the game after fouling two balls off his left ankle in the first inning.

Thursday the Miners will begin a stretch of six games on the road in five days when they visit the River City Rascals. Southern Illinois all-star righty Ryan Zink (3-3, 3.77) will make the start against his former team and River City all-star starter Zach Sterner (6-1, 2.27). It will be a 7:05 p.m. first pitch from T.R. Hughes Ballpark. The Miners trail first place River City by four games.

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Frontier League Stories from July 20, 2011


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