Grizzlies catcher Jose Alvarez had eight RBIs in the three games against Schaumburg over the weekend. (Photo: Thomas Grove)
SCHAUMBURG, IL — The second half of the 2024 Frontier League baseball season began with a successful three-game road series for the Gateway Grizzlies, who took two of three from the Schaumburg Boomers in a set at Wintrust Field.
Gateway won Games 1 and 3 of the series on Friday and Sunday, but lost Game 2 on Saturday. The two wins lifted the Grizzlies’ season record to 34-25 and allowed the club to gain ground on each of the teams around them in the Frontier League West Division standings.
The Grizzlies are in third place, but were able to move closer to first place Washington and second place Lake Erie, while also moving a game further ahead of fourth place Schaumburg.
Gateway is now five games behind Washington and 2.5 games behind Lake Erie. There’s still a month and a half left in the season, but if the playoffs began today, Gateway would be the second Wild Card team in the West and would play a single-elimination game against Lake Erie to see who would face Washington in the West Division championship series.
Schaumburg, as the fourth place team in the West, would be the odd team out and would not make the playoffs.
In its two wins over the Boomers, Gateway got great production from its offense, as it won 6-3 on Friday and 7-3 on Sunday. In Saturday’s game, Schaumburg won 6-1.
Catcher Jose Alvarez, the former St. Louis Cardinals minor league player who is in his first season with the Grizzlies, was a key figure in his club’s offense production. Alvarez had a hit in all three games, including his first home run of the season on Friday, and drove in eight runs in the three games.
Alvarez is now on an eight-game hitting streak, on which he has gone 11-27 (.407), which has raised his season batting average to .267.
Veteran sluggers D.J. Stewart and Peter Zimmermann also had good weekends for the Grizzlies. Stewart had three hits and an RBI in Friday’s win and two hits and a run scored on Sunday. And Zimmermann hit two home runs over the weekend and now leads the Grizzlies with 13 dingers on the season.
Gateway’s pitching was also a key factor over the weekend. In the two wins, starters Deylen Miley and Collin Sullivan both pitched well and earned the victories, while in the loss, Teague Conrad got knocked around a bit by Schaumburg’s sometimes good, sometimes not-so-good offense.
Miley, the reigning Frontier League Pitcher of the Week, raised his season record to 6-3 by tossing five solid innings on Friday, while giving up just two runs on three hits, with seven strikeouts and just two walks. Lefty fireballer Leoni De La Cruz pitched a clean ninth inning to get the save in that game. It was his fourth of the season since joining the Grizzlies in at the end of June.
In Sunday’s win, Sullivan (6-4) went 6 2/3 innings and also allowed just two runs on three hits. He struck out five and walked four. But he did his best work by pitching around three different potential scoring jams that helped Gateway maintain its leads and get through the weekend with a pair of wins it needed.
The Grizzlies will now get Monday off, before traveling to from one part of the Chicago area to another for a three-game series against the Joliet Slammers that will begin on Tuesday. Joliet is the fifth place team in the Frontier League West and has a 27-33 record, after losing two of three to the Windy City ThunderBolts this past weekend.
Gateway will finally get to return home next weekend when they’ll host a three-game rematch set against Schaumburg at Grizzlies Ballpark in Sauget, next Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
UPCOMING GATEWAY GRIZZLIES BASEBALL GAMES
| Date | Time | At | Opponent | Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 23, 2024 (Tuesday) | 6:35 pm | Away | Joliet Slammers | Duly Health and Care Field / Joliet, IL |
| July 24, 2024 (Wednesday) | 6:35 pm | Away | Joliet Slammers | Duly Health and Care Field / Joliet, IL |
| July 25, 2024 (Thursday) | 6:35 pm | Away | Joliet Slammers | Duly Health and Care Field / Joliet, IL |
| July 26, 2024 (Friday) | 6:30 pm | Home | Schaumburg Boomers | Grizzlies Ballpark / Sauget, IL |
| July 27, 2024 (Saturday) | 6:30 pm | Home | Schaumburg Boomers | Grizzlies Ballpark / Sauget, IL |
| July 28, 2024 (Sunday) | 5:30 pm | Home | Schaumburg Boomers | Grizzlies Ballpark / Sauget, IL |
| July 30, 2024 (Tuesday) | 6:30 pm | Home | New Jersey Jackals | Grizzlies Ballpark / Sauget, IL |
| July 31, 2024 (Wednesday) | 6:30 pm | Home | New Jersey Jackals | Grizzlies Ballpark / Sauget, IL |
| August 1, 2024 (Thursday) | 6:30 pm | Home | New Jersey Jackals | Grizzlies Ballpark / Sauget, IL |