Miners Use Late Surge to Sweep Normal
Published on May 23, 2016 under Frontier League (FL)
Southern Illinois Miners News Release
Marion, Ill. - Fresh off their biggest comeback to win a game in nearly seven years, the Southern Illinois Miners got a go-ahead three-run homer from captain Steve Marino and another three-run shot from Aaron Gates to help blast their way past the Normal CornBelters 9-3 on Sunday, improving their record to 6-3 overall and take all three games of the series at The Corn Crib.
The first five innings of the contest were a pitcher's duel between new Miners left-hander Dan Ludwig and Normal's Jake Negrete. The CornBelters led off the first with a solo home run by Mike Fish, and held a 1-0 lead up until the sixth inning.
Ludwig (1-0) settled down in a big way after the initial long ball, pitching six and one-third innings and surrendering no runs from the first until the seventh. The Miners also couldn't solve Negrete (0-2) until the sixth. Francisco Rosario led off with a walk, and with two outs, Gates was hit by a pitch. Marino drove the next pitch over the left field fence for a home run, tilting the tables in the Miners' favor and making the score 3-1.
Normal would get a run back in the seventh off of Ludwig, who gave up just two runs on four hits in his Miners debut. Southern Illinois would tack on big in the eighth and ninth innings. In the eighth, Nolan Earley singled with one out and was followed by a double from Alex De Leon. Gates then smacked his first homer of the season out to right, a three-run shot that gave the Miners a 6-2 lead. After Normal got another run back in the bottom of the eighth, the Miners would bat around and score three more runs in the top of the ninth inning, with a bases-loaded walk by Earley and a two-run double by De Leon, his second double in as many innings, accounting for the final margin.
Rosario, DeLeon, Gates, Marino and Julius Gaines all had two hits in the contest, with Marino and Gates driving in three runs apiece and De Leon adding a pair of RBIs as the Miners got manager Mike Pinto his 600th win as a professional manager and took sole posession of first place in the West Division for the first time this season.
The Miners will be back in action on Wednesday, May 25th, when they travel to Florence for a two-game series beginning at 6:05 p.m. Rick Teasley will be on the mound for the Miners in the opener.
The Southern Illinois Miners are the back-to-back Frontier League East Division Champions and the 2012 Frontier League Champions. They have been awarded the Frontier League Organization of the Year award three times since their inception, and also set a new Frontier League attendance record in 2007, their inaugural season. For ticket information, contact the Rent One Park box office at (618) 998-8499. For any additional information, visit our website at www.southernillinoisminers.com.
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