SAUGET, ILL. – The Gateway Grizzlies returned home after being swept in New Jersey on Tuesday night at Arsenal BG Ballpark, but continued to struggle in big moments, losing their fourth straight game to the Florence Y’alls, who broke a five-game losing streak, by a final score of 10-7.
Ben Harris (5-3) got the start, and surrendered a two-run homer to Hank Zeisler in the first inning, putting the Grizzlies behind immediately, but would settle in to retire nine Florence batters in a row after that, holding the line. He would end up striking out a career-best 11 batters in the game over six and one-third innings.
The Gateway offense got a run back in the bottom of the first on a solo home run by Sawyer Smith, but would strand eight men on base in the first four frames against Florence’s Nathan Lawson, failing to take advantage of numerous opportunities offensively.
Jackson Tucker’s solo shot in the fifth inning made the score 3-1, and that’s where the game would stay until the bottom of the sixth inning, when, after Lawson left the game, Davie Morgan came through with the big hit Gateway was looking for all night to that point- a two-run home run that knotted the score at 3-3.
But just like over the completed road trip, the Grizzlies could not make the lead stand up, as Dillon Baker hit his sixth home run of the season in just four games against Gateway, a go-ahead, two-run short-porch shot to right field, putting the Y’alls back ahead 5-3.
The bullpen would also permit three more runs in the top of the eighth and two more in the ninth, nullifying a stirring comeback attempt by the Gateway offense against Florence reliever Chase Hopewell in the bottom of the eighth. In that four-run inning, Cole Brannen came up clutch with an RBI double, while Smith made it an 8-7 game with an RBI single of his own, but the Grizzlies would leave the tying run standing on second base.
Gateway will again seek a streak-busting win on Wednesday night, June 24, at 6:30 p.m., sending Ty Good to the mound against Florence left-hander Evan Webster at Arsenal BG Ballpark.
Grizzlies Swept in New Jersey
Gateway fights back from early deficit, but suffers another heartbreaking loss
PATERSON, N.J. – The Gateway Grizzlies continued an unfortunate historic trend on the road against an Atlantic Conference opponent on Sunday at Hinchliffe Stadium, giving up a go-ahead solo home run with two outs in the bottom of the eighth inning to rookie outfielder Noah Furcht in a 5-4 loss to the New Jersey Jackals, sealing a frustrating series sweep to close out the long trip.
The Jackals gained a 3-0 advantage with seven hits in the first three innings off Gage Vailes, but the right-hander would permit just one more hit in his final three innings of work, striking out nine batters over six frames to keep Gateway in the game.
The Grizzlies’ offense woke up in the fourth, with Jose Alvarez knocking an RBI single into the outfield to make the score 3-1. After Gustavo Sosa’s solo homer in the same inning expanded the deficit back to three runs, Victor Castillo cranked a solo shot of his own to nearly the exact same spot over the right-center field wall to make it 4-2 New Jersey. Bryson Horne would follow in the frame with an RBI single to draw the Grizzlies within one.
After Vailes held New Jersey off the board in the bottom of the fifth, breaking a streak of five straight unsuccessful shutdown innings in the series, Castillo came up again and tied the score with another solo home run to right-center field, making Sunday his first-career multi-homer game, and knotting things up at 4-4.
Vailes and Andrew Ronne kept the tied game state intact over the next two innings, but in the bottom of the eighth, Julio Ortiz (0-1) took the mound, and after striking out two batters in a row, he fell behind 3-1 to Furcht, who loaded up for a fastball and guessed correctly, hitting his first professional home run out to left field for a 5-4 lead.
The Grizzlies got the tying run on base in the top of the ninth, but could not advance him past first base, dropping to 11-25 all-time against current members of the Atlantic Conference on the road with nearly half of those defeats coming on walk-offs or in their opponents’ final turn at bat, including three times out of four losses on their now-concluded road trip.
