AVON, OHIO – The Gateway Grizzlies led for most of the game on Wednesday afternoon against the Lake Erie Crushers, but saw a late lead slip away when the home team scored twice in the bottom of the ninth, walking off on an error at home plate with a 5-4 decision at Crusher Stadium.
Lake Erie grabbed an early 1-0 advantage when Jarrod Watkins led off with a single and was balked to second base by Alvery De Los Santos before going to third on a groundout and scoring on a sacrifice fly by Scout Knotts. The Grizzlies would pounce on a wild Darrien Ragins in the top of the second inning, however, drawing three straight walks to lead off the inning and bringing them all around to score on an RBI single by Edwin Mateo, an error by Alberti Chavez on a batted ball by Jose Alvarez, and a double-play ground ball, taking a 3-1 lead.
Gateway would expand that lead to 4-1 on back-to-back leadoff doubles off Ragins in the third inning by Peter Zimmermann and D.J. Stewart. That was all De Los Santos needed, as he settled into a groove in the middle part of the game, allowing just one hit and two walks in his first five innings on the bump. With two outs in the sixth inning, however, he appeared to strike out Knotts on a couple of different pitches, but eventually walked him before Vincent Byrd, Jr. hit a two-run home run to right field, making the score 4-3 Grizzlies.
De Los Santos would pitch a seventh inning and work around the tying and go-ahead runs on base in the process to tie his career-high in innings dealt, and Alec Whaley also did the same in the eighth inning, but things would go sideways on Matt Hickey (4-3) in the ninth.
After getting the first batter out, Hickey surrendered back-to-back singles to Burle Dixon and Jason Agresti before allowing a game-tying RBI single to Watkins, making it 4-4. He then walked Chavez to load the bases for Knotts, and got the Lake Erie first baseman to hit a ground ball back to the mound. Hickey knocked the ball down and immediately flipped it to Alvarez at home plate to get the lead runner and potentially start an inning-ending double play, but the ball caromed off Alvarez’s glove for an error, allowing the winning run to score.
Gateway will look to bounce back in the series finale tomorrow night, August 29, at 5:35 p.m. CT, with Deylen Miley getting the start at Crushers Stadium against Lake Erie’s Anthony Escobar.
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