The Gateway Grizzlies celebrate a thrilling comeback win Saturday night at Grizzlies Ballpark in Sauget. (Photo: Thomas Grove)
SAUGET, IL — The final weekend of the 2024 Frontier League regular season turned out to be a fun one for the Gateway Grizzlies.
Not only did the club enjoy its annual Greatest Night In Baseball celebration with lots of fanfare and fireworks on Sunday, the Grizzlies showed a lot of that and so much more in taking two of its final three games at home against the Florence Y’alls.
Gateway lost Friday night’s contest 4-2, but rallied from a 10-1 deficit to claim an 11-10 win on Saturday, then came back and hit five home runs to Sunday’s game 16-8.
The Grizzlies finished the year with a 59-36 record — the second straight year the team won 59 games. Gateway also earned second place in the Frontier League West Division, which means the team will not only be in the playoffs, they will host the West Division Wild Card Game against third place finisher, the Lake Erie Crushers, in a winner-take-all game at Grizzlies Ballpark on Tuesday.
The winner will advance to the West Division Championship Series against the first-place Washington Wild Things, which will begin on Thursday. The winner of that best two-of-three series will advanced to the Frontier League Finals to play for the league championship.
That series will begin on Tuesday, September 10, at the home field of the West Division representative. That could be the Gateway Grizzlies, if they can get past Lake Erie in the Wild Card Game and win the Division Championship Series against Washington this weekend.
If how things went this past weekend are any indication, then the Grizzlies look to be in good shape.
In Friday’s game, Peter Zimmermann hit two solo home runs to provide Gateway’s only scores, but Florence got a clutch two-run single by Brian Fuentes and a solo homer of his own from Dalton Davis to pull out the win.
On Saturday, the Y’alls led 10-1 going into the bottom of the fourth, but the Grizzlies scored at least one run in every inning the rest of the game to rally back to win. Zimmermann had three hits in the game, as did teammate D.J. Stewart, who also had four RBIs.
Cole Brannen hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the eighth to tie the game. Then in the ninth, Gateway loaded the bases before Gabe Holt drilled a single to score Abdiel Diaz with the game-winning run.
On Sunday, the Grizzlies scored a run in every inning but one, and kept its slugfest going with homers by Zimmermann, Diaz, Kevin Krause, Jose Alvarez, and Victor Castillo. In all, Gateway totaled 14 hits, with Alvarez leading the way with three of them, to go along with three RBIs and two runs scored.
Zimmermann’s dinger gave him a team-best 23 on the season. He also tied with Stewart for the team lead in RBIs with 66.
Gateway’s pitching staff is led by veteran righthanders Deylen Miley (8-4) and Collin Sullivan (9-5). Miley led the Frontier League in strikeouts this season with 161.
Rookie Teague Conrad (7-4) has also had a fine season, as has lefty closer Leoni De La Cruz, who finished fourth in the league with 14 saves.
UPCOMING GATEWAY GRIZZLIES BASEBALL GAMES
| Date | Time | At | Opponent | Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| September 3, 2024 (West Division Wild Card Game) | 6:30 pm | Home | Lake Erie Crushers | Grizzlies Ballpark / Sauget, IL |