Miners play Otters twice as opener nears

PADUCAH, Ky. - The Southern Illinois Miners open their 12th season in the Frontier League on Friday night and have been trimming their roster along with playing exhibition games during spring camp.

In the first round of cuts, Miners manager Mike Pinto released six players and placed Williams Perez, the first roster player with major league experience, on the suspended list.

And on Sunday, another round of transactions included three players released and two more traded to other leagues.

This came after playing the Evansville Otters in a pair of weekend games.

On Saturday, the Miners and Otters played at Paducah's Brooks Stadium and the Otters won 8-3 as a thick fog rolled in over Doc Hideg Field.

The Miners had a 3-1 lead after shortstop Luis Jean scored from second base on a groundout, followed by second baseman Cletis Avery's sharp two-run, two-run two out single.

Evansville took the lead after a pair of bad luck infield hits and an error led to a two-run single.

The Miners put two runners on base in the seventh and eighth innings but came up empty both times, including three straight strikeouts in the eighth.

In the ninth, John Werner came in to pitch for the Miners. Werner is back after setting the career and single-season franchise saves record at 22 last season.

Werner got two quick outs, then got a grounder but Jean threw wide of first. Werner then appeared to get an inning-ending strikeout on a full-count pitch but didn't get the call, which led to run-scoring hits by Caleb Eldridge and Dillon Kelley.

On Friday, the Miners traveled to Evansville's Bosse Field and battled through delays to win 4-1 late into the night.

The game didn't start until 8:40 p.m. - this was after having Thursday's game at Gateway rained out after traveling to GCS Ballpark - and featured a strong start by pitcher Billy Griffin

Anthony Critelli put the Miners on the board with an RBI single in the second inning, then in the seventh, Kurt Wertz Jr. hit a double and scored on a sac fly by Avery. Austin Call hit an RBI single in the ninth and Austin Dubsky struck out two Otters in the ninth to end it.

The Miners play again Tuesday morning at home against Evansville and travel to Evansville again Wednesday to finish the exhibition portion of the schedule. The regular season begins Friday night with a game against Lake Erie at Rent One Park starting at 7:05 p.m.