Gateway breaks game open on grand slam by Stewart, records second sweep of 2025
JOLIET – The Gateway Grizzlies swept the Joliet Slammers on Sunday afternoon, using a two-out grand slam by D.J. Stewart in the fourth inning to surge ahead in an eventual 10-4 victory at Slammers Stadium.
Gateway took advantage of a couple of Joliet mistakes in the third inning to go in front. Gabe Holt led off with a single against Slammers starter Aidan McEvoy (2-2), and Victor Castillo reached on an error by Dylan Robertson at third base. After a wild pitch and a groundout produced no runs, the Slammers intentionally walked Dale Thomas to pitch to Jose Alvarez with the bases loaded, and Alvarez hit a ground ball to second base to potentially begin an inning-ending double play. But Braylin Marine’s throw to first base got past Jamey Smart, allowing two runners to score on the play for a 2-0 Grizzlies lead.
In the next inning, Gateway came up with more two-out magic. With one runner on and two outs already in the inning, Holt reached on an infield single and Castillo walked to load the bases for Stewart. The two-time Frontier League all-star responded with a drive over the center field fence for a grand slam, with the 406-foot bomb putting the Grizzlies ahead 6-0.
Gateway would eventually take an 8-0 lead thanks to an RBI groundout by Cole Brannen in the fifth inning and a solo home run by Holt in the sixth as well as more great pitching in the series by their starting pitcher, with Alvery De Los Santos (2-0) carrying a shutout into the sixth inning and striking out a season-high six.
The Slammers got on the board on a two-out RBI single by Marine in the sixth against De Los Santos, then used four walks to score three times in the seventh against Dom Velazquez and bring the tying run to the plate, but Alec Whaley recorded the final out of the frame to keep Gateway ahead 8-4. The Grizzlies then tacked on two more runs of insurance in the eighth for the final margin as they finished off the sweep.
Offensively, Gateway’s veterans led the way, with Holt going 3-for-5 with three runs scored out of the leadoff spot, and Stewart amassing a season-high five RBIs to earn the club their second series sweep of the season and first since mid-May against the Mississippi Mud Monsters.
After completing the first half of their road trip with a winning record overall at 4-2 and having won three straight games, Gateway now shifts their focus to the back end of their long swing away from Sauget, as they will travel to New York to open up a three-game series on Tuesday, June 10, against the Tri-City ValleyCats. First pitch at Joseph L. Bruno Stadium in Troy, New York is set for 5:30 p.m. CT.
Grizzlies Blank Slammers To Take Weekend Series
JOLIET – The Gateway Grizzlies got a brilliant start from rookie right-hander Ben Harris (1-0) in his professional debut on Saturday night, with the Georgia Gwinnett alum firing six shutout innings to lead the club to a 2-0 win over the Joliet Slammers, clinching the weekend series victory at Slammers Stadium.
The contest was a true “pitcher’s duel” between Harris and Joliet southpaw C.J. Blowers (0-2), with neither pitcher blinking until the top of the fifth inning. Harris had four strikeouts and had not allowed a hit to that point, and it was a two-out walk drawn by Cole Brannen that ended up kickstarting the only run-scoring rally of the game.
After Brannen got on base, he stole second, and Gabe Holt followed with what turned out to be the game-winning hit, an RBI double to right-center field that made the score 1-0. On the very next pitch, Victor Castillo extended his hit streak to 10 games with an RBI single into shallow right-center field, doubling the Grizzlies’ lead to 2-0.
That was all Gateway needed. After Harris recorded scoreless frames in the fifth and the sixth to finish his debut outing, Alec Whaley and Keegan Collett tossed scoreless frames in the seventh and eighth innings, respectively, with Collett freezing Dan Wuestenfeld on a curveball to strand the bases loaded in the latter.
Leoni De La Cruz took over in the ninth inning, and the left-hander picked up his second save of the season as Gateway claimed the weekend series in Joliet as well as their second shutout victory of the season and first since opening weekend.
Grizzlies Bounce Back with Big Inning Late, Beat Joliet
JOLIET – The Gateway Grizzlies broke open a close ballgame in the top of the eighth inning on Friday night, scoring five times in the frame to go ahead for good in an 8-3 win over the Joliet Slammers at Slammers Stadium to claim the opener of the weekend series and bounce back into the win column.
Gage Vailes and Bryan Pena began the game with three scoreless innings, and just like yesterday in both games of their doubleheader at Windy City, Gateway struck first for a 2-0 lead with Dale Thomas opening the scoring in the top of the fourth with an RBI double, and Jose Alvarez contributing a sacrifice fly to make it a two-run ballgame. Joliet answered in the bottom of the inning on a sacrifice fly by Dylan Goldstein, but the Grizzlies answered back again in the top of the fifth on another sac fly, this time by D.J. Stewart, to take a 3-1 advantage.
That also would not hold, as Joliet used a leadoff walk to kickstart a two-run rally, tying the game on RBI singles by Liam McArthur and Antonio Valdez in the bottom of the fifth. Vailes, however, kept the game tied by getting out of a jam with the go-ahead run in scoring position, and in the next two innings, the combination of Dom Velazquez, Matt Hickey, and Francis Peguero (1-1) were able to work around leadoff doubles in the bottom of the sixth and seventh frames, setting up the game-winning rally in the eighth against Chase Hopewell (2-1).
Thomas began things with a walk, and went to third on a perfect hit-and-run base knock off the bat of Alvarez into right field. Corbin Shaw then put the Grizzlies in front 4-3 with his first pro RBI, a sacrifice fly to center field. But after another single by Edwin Mateo, then a strikeout for the second out of the inning, Gateway surged further ahead with clutch hitting. Tate Wargo delivered a two-run double just fair inside the first base bag to make the score 6-3, and Gateway followed with three straight singles to plate two more runs, with RBIs by Gabe Holt and Stewart, capping the big frame with an 8-3 advantage.
That was all Gateway needed, as Peguero finished off the game with perfect innings in the eighth and ninth for the road win. Offensively, the Grizzlies’ 14-hit attack was spearheaded by three-hit games by Mateo and Victor Castillo, plus two-hit nights from Holt, Stewart, and Alvarez in the bounce-back effort.
