Third baseman Andrew Penner had two hits, including a home run, to lead the Gateway Grizzlies to a 4-3 win over the Windy City ThunderBolts, Friday night at GCS Credit Union Ballpark in Sauget, Ill. (Photo: Thomas Grove)
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Windy City ThunderBolts | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 8 | 1 |
| Gateway Grizzlies | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 10 | 2 |
DeMarcus Dixon
Staff Writer
Sauget, IL — The Gateway Grizzlies went to extra innings for the first time this season at GCS Credit Union Ballpark on Friday night, and pulled off a 4-3, 10th inning win over the Windy City ThunderBolts, to snap a three-game losing streak.
Jay Prather scored the winning run, on a wild pitch by Windy City’s Ryan Miller, in the bottom of the tenth, in front of a loud crowd of 2,514, that went home happy, as the Grizzlies picked up their first win on Friday night since opening night back in May.
Reliever Sam Gardner (6-2) got the win for Gateway, after pitching the ninth and tenth innings for the home team. Gardner came in to try to close the game out, but he gave up a game-tying solo home run to Windy City’s Brian Klein in the ninth that sent the game to extra innings.
But the veteran righthander did get through the tenth, as he stranded Windy City’s intentional runner at third, to keep the score tied at 3. Prather then took second for the Grizzlies to start the bottom of the 10th and advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt by teammate Alex Hernandez.
Then with Abdiel Diaz at the plate, Miller (1-2) threw a pitch that bounced into the turf and rolled toward the Windy City dugout. That allowed Prather to score easily with the winning run for Gateway.
Starting pitcher Lukas Veinbergs was sharp on the mound early for the Grizzlies, pitching three perfect innings to start, with five strikeouts. With two outs in the bottom of the third, Gateway got on the board first, thanks to a single by Diaz singled and a two-run homer by Andrew Penner — his seventh of the season.
Windy City got its first runs in the top of the fifth, on an RBI single by Jonathan Nieves, the only run Veinbergs allowed in 5 2/3 innings, while striking out a career-high 10.
The Grizzlies responded quickly responded in the bottom of the fifth, when Hernandez blasted his first home run as a professional player, over the left field wall, to put Gateway up 3-1.
The ThunderBolts rallied with a run in the eighth and another in the ninth to send the contest to extra innings. Blowing the lead deflated the crowd some, but that just set up the dramatic finish, which sent everyone home happy.
Gateway (38-44) and Windy City (30-51) will play the second game of their three-game set, on Saturday evening, at GCS Credit Union Ballpark. First pitch is slated for 6:45 p.m., Steven Ridings (3-1, 5.44 ERA) scheduled to make the start for the Grizzlies against Windy City’s Miguel Ausua (2-6, 6.11 ERA).
| Upcoming Gateway Grizzlies Frontier League Baseball Games |
| Sat., August 20 — vs. Windy City — 6:45 pm |
| Sun., August 21 — vs. Windy City — 5:45 pm |
| Wed., August 24 — vs. Florence Y’alls — 6:45 pm |
| Thu., August 25 — vs. Florence Y’alls — 6:45 pm |
| Fri., August 26 — at Schaumburg Boomers — 6:30 pm |
| Sat., August 27 — at Schaumburg Boomers — 6 pm |
| Sun., August 28 — at Schaumburg Boomers — 1 pm |
| Mon., August 29 — at Schaumburg Boomers — 6:30 pm |
| All Gateway Grizzlies home games are played GCS Credit Union Ballpark. |