PEARL, MISS. – Flame thrower Sam Coonrod is back in style with the Gateway Grizzlies.
Coonrod, now 1-0, pitched and held the Mississippi Mud Monsters in check in a relief role in a 9-8 victory for the Grizzlies in 10 innings on Wednesday night at Trustmark Park. It was a classic, back-and-forth game.
After Leoni De La Cruz got out of a big jam in the bottom of the eighth, stranding the bases loaded, neither team got any men on base in the tenth against either Gateway’s Coonrod (1-0) or Mississippi’s Sergio Sanchez (0-1), sending the contest to extra innings.
The Grizzlies were able to plate their International Tiebreaker runner thanks to a sacrifice bunt by Tanner Garrison, and then a sacrifice fly by Young, with his first pro RBI putting the Grizzlies up 9-8.
In the bottom of the inning against Keegan Collett, the Mud Monsters also sacrificed the tying run to third base, but Collett came up huge, sealing the win by striking out both Bradshaw and Forbes swinging to earn the save, and deliver the series win for the Grizzlies.
Coonrod has big a Major League pitcher and pitched in parts of four seasons in MLB with the New York Mets (2023), Philadelphia Phillies (2021-22), and San Francisco Giants (2019-20), owning a 7-5 career record, 5.54 ERA, five saves, 101 strikeouts, and 52 walks in 104 innings over 115 total appearances.
Coonrod starred at Carrollton High School and led the Hawks to a 31-1 record and the Illinois Class 1A state championship as a senior in 2011 by going 11-0 on the mound with a 1.35 ERA, 113 strikeouts in 62 innings, and five no-hitters thrown.
Solid Start For Grizzlies
The game started off very well for Gateway, as the Grizzlies scored their first first-inning run of the year on an RBI single by D.J. Stewart for a 1-0 lead, then scored four more runs in the second inning. Dale Thomas rapped a double to right-center field to plate Jose Alvarez from first base to make it 2-0, and with the bases loaded and two outs, Victor Castillo’s fly ball to left field was dropped by Davis Bradshaw for a costly error, scoring all three men on base for a 5-0 Gateway margin.
In the game Wednesday night, Mississippi would chip away and eventually erase the deficit. The home side scored two runs in the third inning off Gateway starter Gage Vailes thanks to three walks and a sacrifice fly by Ti’Quan Forbes to make it 5-2. They would then plate three more runs in the bottom of the fifth to knot the game up at 5-5, including two-out, RBI hits by Karell Paz and Travis Holt.
The Grizzlies re-took the lead right away in the sixth inning when Cole Brannen came up with a clutch, two-out RBI single for a 6-5 Gateway advantage, with Brannen extending his season-opening hit streak to five games on the knock. But in the bottom of the inning with two outs against Francis Peguero, Bradshaw reached first base on an infield single, and Forbes crushed a two-run home run to the right of the batter’s eye in center field, putting the Mud Monsters back ahead 7-6.
After the home side plated an insurance run on a Kyle Booker RBI single, also with two outs in the bottom of the seventh, the Grizzlies would make another comeback. Down 8-6 entering the eighth inning, Thomas led off with a single, and Tyler Young also singled to put the tying runs on base. Then, with two outs in the inning against Mississippi reliever Zack Morris, it was Gateway’s turn to come up clutch again, with Castillo and Stewart banging out back-to-back RBI singles to tie the game again at 8-8.
Now 4-1 on the season, Gateway will look to sweep the West Division road set from the Mud Monsters and win a fourth straight game overall in the series finale on Thursday, May 15, at 6:30 p.m. CT. Teague Conrad will make his second start of the season against Mississippi’s Brian Williams at Trustmark Park.
