Gateway Grizzlies new rookie Kaleb Hill pitched six shutout innings in the club’s win over Washington, Tuesday night at Grizzlies Ballpark. (Photo courtesy: Gateway Grizzlies)

SAUGET, IL — After a week long trip to Canada, the Gateway Grizzlies returned home on Tuesday and earned themselves a tense 1-0 win over the visiting Washington Wild Things in a Frontier League baseball game at Grizzlies Ballpark.

Gateway snapped a two-game losing streak and improved its overall record to 17-10.

Tuesday’s matchup featured the professional baseball debut of Grizzlies new rookie starter Kaleb Hill, a lefthander who pitched at Georgia Gwinnett College during the college season this past spring.

Hill, a Pine Bluff, Ark., native who went 11-1 with a 2.01 ERA and five complete games to lead the GGC Grizzlies to the NAIA World Series in May, signed with Gateway earlier this month and made his first appearance for the club on Tuesday. And the hard throwing southpaw showed exactly why the Grizzlies were interested in bringing him aboard.

Hill pitched six shutout innings, allowing just five hits and two walks, while also striking out two. The Grizzlies scored the lone run of the game on an RBI double by Abdiel Diaz that brought in Cole Brannen. It was Diaz’s 10th RBI of the year and Brannen’s team-leading 20th run scored this season.

From there, Hill (1-0) took over, as he pitched out of small bits of trouble in the fourth and fifth innings, before finishing his night with a three-up, three-down sixth.

Teammates Nate Garkow, Alec Whaley, and Lukas Veinbergs each pitched a scoreless inning to finish the game out. Veinbergs pitched the ninth to get his sixth save of the season.

The victory was the third over Washington in a row for the Grizzlies this season, all of them being shutout wins, with their scoreless streak against the Wild Things reaching 25 2/3 innings in the series opening contest.

The Grizzlies will look to take the series in the middle game on Wednesday morning against the Wild Things, when Gateway will host its annual “Splash Bash” game at Grizzlies Ballpark. First pitch is set for 10:45 a.m., with Collin Sullivan starting for the Grizzlies and Malik Barrington taking the mound for Washington (18-9).

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