Zink, Miners Bop Grizzlies 9-3
August 24, 2011 - Frontier League (FL)
Southern Illinois Miners News Release
MARION, Ill. - The Miners cruised past Gateway, 9-3, Wednesday night at Rent One Park. Starter Ryan Zink worked into the eighth inning and moved his record to 7-5 with the win. With the victory, the Miners have won 11 straight games at home, a new franchise record. With a 54-32 record, they are a season best 22 games over the .500 mark. Ryan Juarez took the loss for the Grizzlies, dropping his record to 4-4.
Zink worked seven and one-third innings, allowing three runs, two earned, off seven hits in a 121-pitch effort. The all-star struck out two and walked one.
Matt Fields gave the Miners an early 1-0 lead in the second inning on his solo shot. It was Fields' team-leading 16th home run and 42nd RBI of the year.
The Miners struck again in the third. Cannon Lester and Boomer Blanchard led off the inning with a single and a double, respectively. The next two batters followed with back-to-back strikeouts. Fields drew an intentionally walk to bring up Ernie Banks. Banks delivered a two-out RBI single. Ken Gregory followed with a two-run, two-out hit of his own, extending the lead to 4-0.
Southern Illinois piled on in the sixth with four more runs. Sam Wiley blasted his fourth home run of the season, a solo shot, giving the Miners a 5-1 lead. Three batters later, Will Block drilled a two-run shot, tying Matt Fields for the team-lead in home runs with his 16th. Gordie Gronkowski then doubled and scored an unearned run on an error by Gateway third baseman Charlie Lisk to stretch the lead to 8-1.
Zink left the game with one out in the eighth inning after allowing three of the first four batters of the inning to reach. He had allowed just one unearned run off four hits in his first seven innings of work. Erik Draxton relieved Zink and tossed one and two-thirds innings of scoreless baseball. The righty reliever allowed one hit and struck out three.
Ken Gregory went 2-for-3 at the plate with an RBI. He and Wiley were the only two Miners with a multiple-hit evening. Gregory walked to lead off the seventh inning and scored from third on a double play.
Juarez started the game for Gateway and exited with one out in the fourth inning with an apparent lower leg injury. The righty allowed four runs off six hits and struck out three. He issued one walk, and it was intentional.
The Miners will be looking for their fourth consecutive home series sweep Thursday when righty David Harden (7-5, 2.96) takes the mound against Gateway ace Mark Brackman (6-3, 1.95). It will be a 7:05 p.m. first pitch from Rent One Park on Xtreme Theme Thursday Facebook Night presented by KFVS 12.
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