Gateway’s Abdiel Diaz drove in the first run of the game, Saturday night, in what proved to be a 3-2 win over the Schaumburg Boomers. (Photo: Thomas Grove)
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gateway Grizzlies (41-47) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 9 | 1 |
| Schaumburg Boomers (49-39) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 1 |
Torrence Terrell
Staff Writer
Schaumburg, IL — The Gateway Grizzlies took a 3-0 lead into the bottom of the ninth inning on Saturday night in front of a sellout crowd at Wintrust Field, and nearly lost that lead as the Schaumburg Boomers rallied.
But Grizzlies’ closer John Murphy was able to shut the door, and get the final three outs to preserve a 3-2 Gateway win, evening the weekend series at one game apiece.
Both starters were outstanding in the contest- Lukas Veinbergs (5-1) continued his stellar month of August by firing six shutout innings, allowing just two infield hits to the powerful Boomers lineup while striking out three.
Kobey Schlotman (4-2) was almost as good, as he allowed just one run in his first six innings of work, coming on a two-out RBI double by Abdiel Diaz that scored Clint Freeman from first base in the top of the second inning for a 1-0 Grizzlies lead.
The score remained 1-0 until the seventh, when Isaac Benard came up huge with a two-run double to chase the Boomers’ starter from the game and make it 3-0. Anderson DeLeon and Sam Gardner tossed scoreless innings in the seventh and eighth, bringing the lead to the ninth.
Murphy entered for the save, and gave up a leadoff triple to Chase Dawson before striking out Blake Berry for the first out. Clint Hardy then singled up the middle to break up the shutout and make the score 3-1, bringing the tying run to the plate.
After a walk to Wyatt Stapp, Will Salas hit a potential double-play ball to Trevor Achenbach at second base, but he bobbled the ball for an error, loading the bases.
Murphy then threw a wild pitch to Blake Grant-Parks to make it 3-2 and put the tying run at third base with the winning run at second. But the Grizzlies’ all-star closer stopped the bleeding there when he most needed it, getting two straight ground balls to Diaz at shortstop to end the contest, earning his ninth save in the process in front of the raucous road crowd of 7,491.
Gateway will look to secure at least a series split, Sunday afternoon, in the third game of the four-game set against the Boomers. First pitch is scheduled for 1 p.m., with Steven Ridings starting the game against his former team and rookie Aaron Glickstein making the start for Schaumburg.