Members of the Gateway Grizzlies celebrate Friday night’s walkoff win over the Evansville Otters. (Photo: Thomas Grove)
| Frontier League | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Evansville Otters | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 9 | 0 |
| Gateway Grizzlies | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 7 | 0 |
SAUGET, IL — Back home for another weekend at Grizzlies Ballpark, the Gateway Grizzlies enjoyed a thrilling 4-3, 10-inning, walkoff win over the visiting Evansville Otters in front of a raucous crowd of 3,051.
Gateway held the lead on two different occasions, only to see Evansville come back and tie the score both times. Then, once the game went the extra innings, the Otters took their first lead at 3-2 in the top of the 10th inning.
That sent the Grizzlies into the bottom half needing at least a run to tie to avoid a loss. And the home club delivered.
First, All-Star second baseman Gabe Holt smacked a game-tying triple that scored Edwin Mateo to make the score 3-3. Then, shortstop Abdiel Diaz drove a sacrifice fly to right field that scored Holt with the winning run, which set off a wild and fun celebration on the field and in the stands for the Grizzlies players and fans.
The victory lifted Gateway’s record to 45-30 and allowed the club to hold its position in the Frontier League West Division standings. The Grizzlies remain in second place, six games behind first place Washington, and three games ahead of third place Lake Erie.
There are 20 games left in the season and if the playoffs began today, Gateway would host the West Division Wild Card Game against Lake Erie, with the winner advancing to the West Division Championship Series against Washington.
Stellar pitching was a key factor in Friday’s matchup. Gateway starter Lukas Veinbergs went 7 2/3 innings and allowed just two runs on seven hits, with one walk and five strikeouts. He left the game with the score tied 2-2.
Evansville’s starter, Zach Smith, also had a fine night. He went 6 2/3 innings and gave up two runs on just six hits, with one walk and eight strikeouts.
The Otters took the lead in the 10th when they got a run off Gateway’s Leoni De La Cruz. The lefty from the Dominican Republic, who began the season as a member of the Evansville Otters and was traded to the Grizzlies in June, allowed an RBI single that put the visitors ahead.
But De La Cruz managed to get out of the inning without allowing any other damage and was the pitcher of record when his Grizzlie teammates won the game in the bottom of the 10th. De La Cruz, who has been serving as Gateway’s closer for the past two months and has nine saves, now has a 1-1 record to go with it.
Gateway took the first lead of the game when rightfielder Kyle Gaedele hit a solo home run in the bottom of the fifth to make it 1-0. It was his fourth homer of the season. Evansville responded with a solo homer of its own in the top of the sixth to tie the score at 1.
The Grizzlies re-took the lead in the bottom of the seventh on a wild pitch that scored D.J. Stewart. But the Otters answered again in the top of the eighth with a two-out single by JJ Cruz.
That set up the dramatics of the 10th inning, with Evansville going ahead, but Gateway rallying for a fun Friday night win.
The teams will be back at Grizzlies Ballpark on Saturday night for Game 2 of their series. Rookie Aaron Dona, who was sent to the Grizzlies last weekend to complete a trade with the New York Boulders from earlier this season, will make his home debut and be Gateway’s starting pitcher. The Otters are expected to starter veteran Casey Delgado.
First pitch on Saturday is set for 6:30 p.m.
UPCOMING GATEWAY GRIZZLIES BASEBALL GAMES
| Date | Time | At | Opponent | Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| August 9, 2024 (Friday) | 6:30 pm | Home | Evansville Otters | Grizzlies Ballpark / Sauget, IL |
| August 10, 2024 (Saturday) | 6:30 pm | Home | Evansville Otters | Grizzlies Ballpark / Sauget, IL |
| August 11, 2024 (Sunday) | 5:30 pm | Home | Evansville Otters | Grizzlies Ballpark / Sauget, IL |
| August 13, 2024 (Tuesday) | 6:30 pm | Neutral | Lake Erie Crushers | Springfield, IL |
| August 14, 2024 (Wednesday) | 6:30 pm | Home | Lake Erie Crushers | Grizzlies Ballpark / Sauget, IL |
| August 15, 2024 (Thursday) | 6:30 pm | Home | Lake Erie Crushers | Grizzlies Ballpark / Sauget, IL |
| August 16, 2024 (Friday) | 6:35 pm | Away | Windy City ThunderBolts | Ozinga Field / Crestwood, IL |
| August 17, 2024 (Saturday) | 6:05 pm | Away | Windy City ThunderBolts | Ozinga Field / Crestwood, IL |
| August 18, 2024 (Sunday) | 1:05 pm | Away | Windy City ThunderBolts | Ozinga Field / Crestwood, IL |
| August 20, 2024 (Tuesday) | 6:30 pm | Home | Florence Y’alls | Grizzlies Ballpark / Sauget, IL |
| August 21, 2024 (Wednesday) | 6:30 pm | Home | Florence Y’alls | Grizzlies Ballpark / Sauget, IL |
| August 22, 2024 (Thursday) | 6:30 pm | Home | Florence Y’alls | Grizzlies Ballpark / Sauget, IL |