EVANSVILLE, IND. – The Gateway Grizzlies trailed almost the entire game on Saturday night at Bosse Field, but tied the game on Abdiel Diaz’s two-run triple in the ninth inning before winning 4-3 in 10 innings, evening the weekend road series in dramatic fashion. With Lake Erie’s loss to Washington as well, the Grizzlies clinched no worse than the #2 seed in the upcoming Frontier League playoffs.
The Otters would strike early against Teague Conrad, with David Mendham and Gary Mattis leading off the game with a single and double, respectively. Pavin Parks then lifted a sacrifice fly to left field to make it 1-0 Evansville, bringing an end to Conrad’s 21-inning scoreless streak. Logan Brown would line a two-out RBI double later in the inning to make the score 2-0.
Conrad would settle down after the rocky start, however, permitting just one more run, unearned, across the rest of his six innings pitched. The rookie right-hander struck out six and walked just one for the “quality start,” keeping the Grizzlies in the game.
Down 3-0 into the seventh inning, Gateway began their comeback when Kevin Krause hit a solo home run off Otters reliever Ryan Wiltse, making the score 3-1. Thanks to solid Grizzlies relief pitching by Kaleb Hill and Alec Whaley, it would stay 3-1 into the ninth inning, when the Otters brought Parks to the mound to try and get his second straight save.
The two-way star hit Peter Zimmermann, however, and gave up a single to D.J. Stewart to put the tying runs on base with no outs. After Krause flew out to right field, Diaz came up, and on the second pitch of his at-bat, he drove the ball into the right-center field gap over the head of Mattis, scoring Zimmermann and pinch-runner Cole Brannen to tie the game at 3-3 and send Bosse Field into a stunned state.
Gateway would be unable to score the go-ahead run afterwards, and former Otter Leoni De La Cruz (2-1) worked a scoreless bottom of the ninth, sending the game to extra innings. In the tenth, with the International Tiebreaker in effect, Jose Alvarez moved automatic runner Edwin Mateo to third base on a groundout, and Dale Thomas came through in the clutch with his third hit of the game and third RBI of the series, smashing a ground ball single past the diving Mendham at first base to give Gateway their first lead of the game at 4-3.
In the bottom of the inning, the Grizzlies went to Matt Hickey out of the bullpen, and after he hit Randy Bednar to put the winning run on base, he struck out Brown for the first out before getting Delvin Zinn to hit into a game-ending 6-4-3 double play, giving Gateway their first win this season when trailing after eight innings, and officially eliminating the Otters from playoff contention in 2024.
Grizzlies Stumble In Evansville Opener
After clinching a spot in the playoffs last night, the Gateway Grizzlies saw their seven-game win streak come to an end, as missed opportunities with men on base and free passes issued to the Evansville Otters cost them in a 6-4 loss at Bosse Field on Friday night.
It was a great pitching matchup on paper coming in, and it lived up to the billing. Deylen Miley (8-4) and Braden Scott (5-9), the Frontier League’s leader and fourth-place pitcher in strikeouts on the season, both struck out nine opposing hitters in their time on the mound. For Miley, the nine punchouts give him 157 on the season, tied for the second-most in Frontier League history.
Gateway got him the lead as well in the top of the third inning, as with Cole Brannen on third base and one out, Dale Thomas blasted his first professional home run over the left field fence, making the score 2-0 Gateway. Evansville would score one run back on an RBI fielder’s choice by Randy Bednar in the bottom of the fourth inning, but with the score 2-1 in the fifth, a wild pitch by Scott brought Thomas home from third base with two outs, making it 3-1 Grizzlies heading into the sixth.
After Miley struck out Gio DiGiacomo for his ninth strikeout of the night to lead off the bottom of the sixth, however, he ran into trouble, as David Mendham walked, Gary Mattis reached base on an infield single, and Pavin Parks hit a three-run homer to right field to give Evansville the 4-3 lead, ending Miley’s night. But the Otters were also given another run in the inning, as with two outs, Gaige Vailes allowed a double to Logan Brown, hit J.J. Cruz, walked Mason White, and then hit Justin Felix to make the score 5-3.
That would score the eventual game-winning run as well. In the top of the eighth inning, the Grizzlies were able to load the bases with no outs against reliever Alex Valdez on singles by Peter Zimmermann and D.J. Stewart as well as a walk by Kevin Krause. But despite getting one run in the frame on a double-play ground ball by Abdiel Diaz to get within 5-4, Gateway was left wanting much more, and Evansville would take advantage by bringing a leadoff walk by Justin Goossen-Brown around to score in the bottom of the eighth for the final margin.
Gateway finished the contest 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position, while issuing six walks and three hit batters in the contest, with half of the Otters’ runs reaching base for free in the loss.
Despite the defeat, the Grizzlies’ magic number to clinch the 2-seed in the West Division dropped to 2 with Lake Erie’s loss to Washington tonight, and Gateway will look to bounce back tomorrow, Saturday, August 24, at 6:35 p.m. CT in the middle game of the series. Teague Conrad will pitch for the Grizzlies against Evansville’s Casey Delgado at Bosse Field
