FL Southern Illinois Miners

Miners Walk Off In 10th To Sweep Windy City

Published on August 9, 2014 under Frontier League (FL)
Southern Illinois Miners News Release


Marion, Ill. - The Southern Illinois Miners and Windy City Thunderbolts were deadlocked in a scoreless pitcher's duel until the bottom of the 10th inning, when with two on and one out, Niko Vasquez crushed a three-run home run over the left field fence to give the Miners a walk-off 3-0 victory at Rent One Park on Friday night.

Up until Vasquez's heroics- which came on his first and only hit of the series and his first home run as a Miner- the story of the game was the pitching. The Miners' Matt Bywater and the Thunderbolts' Daniel Cropper were both tremendous. Cropper pitched seven scoreless innings, scattering six hits as the Miners had two baserunners in the second, third, fourth and fifth but could not get the big hit to break the ice.

Meanwhile, Bywater was untouchable for Southern Illinois. After giving up a double to Kyle Robinson with two outs in the first, the left-hander would not allow another baserunner until the eighth inning, retiring 20 Windy City hitters in a row in impressive fashion, fanning six in the process. After Max White broke the streak with a double of his own with one out in the eighth, Bywater fanned two to close out the inning around his only walk of the night. He finished with eight innings pitched, two hits, one walk and eight strikeouts, one shy of his season-high in a scoreless outing.

Both teams would get leadoff baserunners against the first reliever for the opposing team. Windy City got a leadoff single in the ninth off Stew Brase and moved him to second on a sacrifice bunt. But Brase would fan Robinson and Ryan Tufts to keep the game scoreless. Jon Eisen worked a leadoff walk in the bottom of the eighth against former Miner Reece McGraw, and Jay Austin walked and stole second in the ninth against closer Daniel Carela, but neither were able to score as the game headed to extras.

After Phil Butler worked a four-pitch walk to lead off the tenth, Eisen tried to sacrifice him to second but instead ending up walking himself on four pitches against Carela. After a foul bunt with two strikes for an out, Vasquez took two balls and then launched his walk-off hit into the night sky as the Miners completed a sweep at Rent One Park, their fourth home sweep of the season and fifth sweep overall.

The win also represented the eighth walk-off win for the Miners this season and the sixth in extra innings. In addition, it was Vasquez's second walk-off as a Miner, joining his bases-loaded walk against Florence in the 12th inning on July 28th.

The Miners now head on a nine-game road trip over nine days, beginning on Saturday night at Joliet at 7:05 p.m. Michael Carden will be on the hill for the Miners against Joliet's Alex Kaminsky.

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