The Gateway Grizzlies will enter August tied for fourth place and three games back in the race for the final Frontier League West Division playoff spot. (Photo: Thomas Grove)

DeMarcus Dixon
Staff Writer

SAUGET, IL — The Gateway Grizzlies got a dominant performance from its ace starter Brendan Feldmann, Sunday night at GCS Credit Union Ballpark, which led to a 6-0 win over the visiting New York Boulders, and also gave the Grizzlies the series win over the Boulders and allowed the club to finish July one game closer to possibly earning a Frontier League playoff spot.

Gateway, which is now 32-34 on the season, is now just three games back in the race for the final Frontier League West Division wild card spot behind the Schaumburg Boomers, who have a record of 34-30.

Entering August, the Grizzlies are in a three-way tie for fourth place in the Frontier League West, with the Joliet Slammers and the Lake Erie Crushers. Gateway will play Lake Erie in a three-game set next week at GCS Credit Union Ballpark, beginning on August 9.

But first, the Grizzlies will go on the road for a pair of three-game series against the first- and second-place teams in the Frontier League West, Washington and Evansville. Following the series with the Crushers next week, Gateway will then host Washington the weekend of August 12-14.

To reach the playoffs, the Grizzlies will need more performances like the one Feldmann gave on Sunday, where he completely shut down and shut out New York. The veteran righty tossed a complete-game, four-hit shutout, and set a new career-high with 12 strikeouts and gave up just one walk.

New York never had more than two runners on base in any one inning, and only got runners into scoring position twice. Both times though, Feldmann powered his way through trouble by striking out the next batters he faced to keep the Boulders off the scoreboard.

The Grizzlies got their runs on RBI hits by Zach Racusin and Kevin Krause in the first inning, then added to their lead with an RBI single by Clint Freeman in the third.

Those three runs proved to be more than enough with Feldmann pitching, but Gateway put the game away with three runs in the sixth, one on a single by Andrew Penner and the final two on a line-shot double by Racusin, who finished the night with three RBIs.

The Grizzlies will enter the final month of the season having won three of their last four, and will be back in action on Tuesday, August 2, with the first of a three-game set against the Washington WildThings at WildThings Park in Washington, Penn., a distant suburb of Pittsburgh.