Miners Top Grizzlies In Series Opener
July 12, 2014 - Frontier League (FL)
Southern Illinois Miners News Release
Marion, Ill. - The Southern Illinois Miners came back from a 2-0 early hole with five unanswered runs, and the bullpen was lights-out in a 5-3 win over the league-leading Gateway Grizzlies at GCS Ballpark in Sauget.
After Gateway had gotten out to the lead with single runs in the first and second off of Rick Teasley (6-1), the Miners rallied for four runs in the fourth inning. Newest Miner Marquis Riley reached on an error and Ryan Cavan followed with a single. Aaron Gates then took the first pitch he saw and slammed it over the right field fence to give the Miners a 3-2 lead. An RBI fielder's choice later in the inning by Matt Jones brought home Steve Marino for a 4-2 lead for the visitors.
Marino would factor into the Miners' fifth run scoring in the fifth inning, as he blooped a ball to shallow left field that dropped to the turf with the bases loaded. The umpires invoked the infield fly rule, however, which allowed a single run to score, although Marino was denied a base hit.
Gateway got a run back on an RBI single by Tommy Richards in the sixth inning, but he was thrown out trying to stretch it into a double for the second out of the inning. That would prove to be the last baserunner to reach against the Miners' pitching staff in the game. Teasley fanned the next batter for the last of his season-high eight strikeouts before Britt Robertshaw, James Bierlein and Stew Brase tossed perfect innings in the seventh, eighth and ninth, respectively to nail down the win for Southern Illinois, their second in a row at GCS Ballpark over the Grizzlies.
Each starter except one had exactly one hit in the contest, with Riley scoring two of the five runs in his first game as a Miner following a trade from Joliet. Southern Illinois will turn to Tyler Lavigne in the second game of the series on Saturday night at 7:05 p.m., opposed by Gateway's Kerry Kelley.
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