Miners Walk off over Freedom for Fourth Straight Win
Published on July 28, 2018 under Frontier League (FL)
Southern Illinois Miners News Release
Marion, IL - The Southern Illinois Miners remained perfect on their homestand on Friday night at Rent One Park, coming back from an early deficit and eventually winning it in the bottom of the 11th inning on a two-out, walk-off single by Harrison Bragg by a final score of 4-3 against the Florence Freedom.
The Freedom scored all of their runs with two outs in the contest, with the first two coming in the top of the second inning on back-to-back RBI singles by Austin Wobrock and Harrison White for a 2-0 advantage. In the bottom of the inning, the Miners got a run back as Max Dutto lifted a sacrifice fly into center field to cut the deficit in half and make it 2-1.
The Miners then took the lead with two outs in the third inning against Florence starter Chuck Weaver, as after Jake Willsey doubled and Nolan Earley walked to lead off, Weaver struck out two batters in a row, but Kyle Davis came through with a double inside the third base bag to plate both runners and give the Miners their first lead at 3-2.
Southern Illinois starter Aaron Rozek held the line from there, and ended up with a "quality start" of six innings pitched, five hits allowed and one walk with a career-high six strikeouts. But Florence was able to tie the score at 3-3 on a two-out, RBI double by Ricky Ramirez, Jr., setting up the rest of the contest. Both bullpens were stout to hold the opposition off the board, and the game remained tied at 3-3 into extra innings.
The game was still knotted into the 11th frame, and with the International Tiebreaker putting an automatic runner at second base to start the inning, Florence failed to score in the top half as James Carter (1-0) struck out Caleb Lopes and got groundouts from both Skylar Ewing and Jordan Brower to send the game to the bottom half. Jonathon Tripp (3-3) struck out Joe Dudek leading off with the automatic runner, Chance Shepard, at second base, and Davis' flyout to center field moved Shepard to third base. The Freedom then intentionally walked Romeo Cortina to face Bragg, who lined a base hit to left-center field to record the team's fifth walk-off victory of the season.
Bragg and Joe Duncan each put up two base hits in the comeback win, while Davis also doubled and went 1-for-3 with two RBIs off the bench. Southern Illinois and Florence continue their series with a doubleheader beginning at 5:05 p.m. on Saturday, July 28th.
The Southern Illinois Miners are the Frontier League's winningest franchise since debuting in 2007, winning the 2012 Frontier League Championship as well as division titles in 2010, 2014, 2015 and 2016. 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 their inaugural season. For ticket information, contact the box office at (618) 998-8499. For additional information, visit our website at www.siminers.com.
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