Gateway’s Zach Rucusin had two hits, an RBI, and scored a run in the Grizzlies’ 7-5 loss the Schaumburg Boomers on Friday night. (Photo courtesy: Gateway Grizzlies)
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gateway Grizzlies (40-47) | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 12 | 1 |
| Schaumburg Boomers (49-38) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | X | 7 | 12 | 0 |
Torrance Terrell
Staff Writer
Schaumburg, IL — The Gateway Grizzlies led 5-2 against the Schaumburg Boomers in the sixth inning on Friday night, but a costly error with two outs ended up leading to five runs in a 7-5 loss at Wintrust Field.
Gateway took the lead in the first inning, loading the bases for Clint Freeman, who came through with a two-run single with two outs for a 2-0 lead. After Schaumburg got within 2-1 on Blake Grant-Parks’ RBI single in the second, Zach Racusin answered right away with a two-out RBI hit of his own to make it 3-1 in the third.
Trevor Achenbach then expanded the lead to 4-1 with an RBI single of his own in the fourth, and after another Grant-Parks RBI hit got the Boomers within 4-2 in the bottom half, Freeman and Achenbach led off the sixth against Schaumburg starter Shumpei Yoshikawa (7-9) with back-to-back doubles, with Achenbach’s second RBI of the game making it 5-2.
Brendan Feldmann (6-8) then recorded the first two outs of the bottom of the sixth on just three pitches.
Wyatt Stapp singled past a diving Achenbach, and then Will Salas hit a ground ball to shortstop that would have ended the inning, but it was booted for an error by Abdiel Diaz, keeping the frame going.
Grant-Parks then doubled to make it 5-3, and Alec Craig tied the score on a single at 5-5 before Braxton Davidson hit a 3-2 pitch by Feldmann over the left-center field wall for a home run, making the score 7-5.
The Grizzlies would get the tying run to the plate in each of their last two turns at bat, and got it on base in the ninth with the potential lead run at the plate that inning, but would not be able to come back in losing the opener of the four-game series.
They will look to bounce back on Saturday, August 27, at 6 p.m., sending Lukas Veinbergs to the mound against Boomers lefty Kobey Schlotman in the second game of the series at Wintrust Field.