Grizzlies catcher Andres Regnault blasted his team-leading 12th home run of the season in Gateway’s win over Schaumburg, Friday night at GCS Credit Union Ballpark in Sauget. (Photo: Nathan Assata)

by Cedric Williams
Senior Editor

SAUGET, IL — Even though he was leading the team in hits, batting average, home runs, and runs batted in, Gateway Grizzlies catcher Andres Regnault was getting a bit stressed out.

Regnault was worried about when, and even if, he was going to hit his next home run.

The 22-year old from Venezuela, has not stopped hitting the ball hard, but it had been 12 games since the last time he hit one over the fence. And before that, Regnault went eight games without a homer.

That means Regnault had hit only one homer in his last 21 games. And that was bugging him.

Well, all that came to an end Friday night at GCS Credit Union Ballpark, when Regnault finally got one he liked and smashed it over the left field fence for his team-leading 12th dinger of the season, to lead the Grizzlies to a 9-6 win over the visiting Schaumburg Boomers.

The homer was one of three Gateway blasted off the Boomers — first baseman Chase Vallot hit two — in what began as a blowout for the Grizzlies, but became a tight ballgame when Schaumburg rallied late.

Gateway jumped out to a 5-0 lead, when it got six hits and sent 10 men to the plate in the bottom of the second.

Vallot got the scoring started when he drilled his seventh homer of the season to make it 1-0.

The next six men in the Grizzlies lineup all reached base, culminating with an RBI double by Abdiel Diaz, and two-run double by Alonzo Jones, an RBI single by Regnault, and another single by Ty Moore.

Vallot dropped a two-run bomb in the bottom of the third and that seemed to be the spark Regnault needed, because he added that homer he had been looking for in the bottom of the fourth, and Gateway was ahead 9-1.

Starting pitcher Jorge Tavarez (6-4) worked his way through five innings and allowed one Schaumburg run to get the win.

It seemed like the Grizzlies would cruise to an easy win, but Schaumburg got four runs in the sixth inning, then added a run and had the tying run on base in the ninth. But that was as close as the Boomers would get, as Gateway brought in its closer, Tanner Cable, to shut the game down.

And that’s exactly what Cable did by striking out Schaumburg cleanup hitter Chase Dawson with the bases loaded to get the final out and his fifth save of the season.

The two clubs will play Game 2 of their series Saturday night at GCS, with righthander Ryan Middendorf (7-4) getting the start for Schaumburg and undefeated rookie righthander Sam Gardner (4-0) taking the mound for the Grizzlies.

First pitch is scheduled for 6:45 p.m.