Miners settle for two wins out of three against Grizzlies Team travels to Florence before returning home Friday

SAUGET - The Southern Illinois Miners built a 3-1 lead in their Sunday finale at Gateway looking to sweep the series, but lost the lead in the seventh, and also could not hold a one-run lead in the 11th, eventually falling to the Grizzlies, 5-4, in 12 innings on a walk-off single by Connor Owings at GCS Credit Union Ballpark.

The Grizzlies again scored first in the contest on an RBI single in the third inning by Luke Lowery at 1-0, and loaded the bases with no one out against Marty Anderson, but the left-hander was able to hold the line at one run, and the Miners' offense capitalized in the next half inning against Grizzlies starter Ian Kahaloa. Back-to-back doubles leading off the top of the fourth by Stephen Lohr and Jamey Smart tied the game at 1-1, and Kyle Davis gave the Miners a 2-1 lead with another double. Joe Duncan capped the frame later with yet another double, the fourth of the inning, to put the Miners up 3-1.

Thanks to Anderson, the lead held until the seventh inning, when he departed with the tying runs in scoring position and one out. But Gunnar Buhner singled against Tyler Luneke to bring both runners in and tie the game at 3-3. Southern Illinois then had the lead run on base in the top of the eighth and ninth, but could not score, with Gateway throwing Bryant Flete out at home plate on a double by Anthony Jimenez in the eighth.

Because of near-flawless late relief pitching by Benjamin Dum and Jordan Brink, the game went to extra innings and made it to the eleventh still tied at 3-3. With the international tiebreaker in effect, Jimenez led off by advancing Flete to third base with a sacrifice bunt, and Gianfranco Wawoe was hit by a pitch followed by a Lohr walk to load the bases with only one out. Smart followed with another base-on-balls against his former teammate Geoff Bramblett (2-2) to make the score 4-3.

But the Miners were unable to score an additional run that inning, and with two outs in the bottom half, Brink surrendered a two-out, game-tying double to Zak Taylor to send the game to the twelfth inning. Southern Illinois failed to score in the top half of the twelfth, and in the bottom half, with two outs, Owings singled home the winning run to deny the Miners a weekend sweep in Sauget.

Southern Illinois now returns home for a day off on Monday before heading to Florence for a critical, four-game series against the first-place Freedom. The series will begin with a doubleheader on Tuesday, July 2, at 4:35 p.m. at UC Health Stadium.

Saturday Game: Another late rally lifts Miners

The Southern Illinois Miners fell behind in the first inning and trailed for the first eight frames for the second night in a row at GCS Credit Union Ballpark, but again made a comeback, scoring the last five runs of the game, including three in the ninth, to erase a 6-2 deficit after six innings and stun the Gateway Grizzlies 7-6.

Gateway again grabbed the lead by scoring two runs in the first inning against Austin Dubsky on an RBI single by Matt Brown and a sacrifice fly by Andrew Daniel, with the Miners responding with two outs in the top of the second on an RBI single by Cletis Avery to cut their deficit to 2-1. But the Grizzlies answered by scoring two more runs against Dubsky in the bottom of the frame, including the second RBI hit by Brown of the game, to make it 4-1 after two innings.

Again Southern Illinois scored to make it a two-run game in the top of the fourth on a sacrifice fly by Kyle Davis, but again Gateway answered thanks to an RBI double by Brown in the bottom half, making the score 5-2. The Grizzlies then pushed the lead out to 6-2 against Andrew Bernstein in the fifth inning on an RBI single by Luis Roman, and after neither team scored in the sixth inning, the Miners began their comeback in the seventh.

Arturo Nieto led off the frame with a single and Bryant Flete walked two batters later. A wild pitch by Ryan Madden moved the runners to second and third base, and with two outs in the inning, Gianfranco Wawoe came up clutch with a two-run double just inside the third base bag to cut the deficit in half and make it 6-4. Jake Godfrey and Benjamin Dum (1-0) threw scoreless frames in the bottom of the seventh and eighth, respectively, setting up the Miners' rally in the ninth.

For the second night in a row, Gateway brought in Dakota Smith (0-2) to close the game, and for the second night in a row the Miners came all the way back against him. Duncan singled and Flete walked to lead off the frame, and were sacrificed to second and third base by Anthony Jimenez. Wawoe was then hit by a pitch to load the bases, and Stephen Lohr drew a walk to force in a run and make it 6-5. Jamey Smart then came up, and the newest Miner- traded to the team from the Grizzlies just one day earlier- made the score 7-6 Southern Illinois with a two-run, go-ahead double to left-center field.

Gabe Gentner followed by nailing down his eighth save with a perfect bottom of the ninth as the Miners clinched the series in Sauget in dramatic fashion.

Friday Game: Southern Illinois trails for eight innings on Friday before taking lead for good in ninth

The Southern Illinois Miners trailed nearly the entire game against the Gateway Grizzlies on Friday night in Sauget, but rallied back to score twice in the ninth and notch a 4-3 victory at GCS Credit Union Ballpark in the opener of the weekend series.

The Grizzlies got the lead in the bottom of the first inning against Chase Cunningham at 1-0 with a bases-loaded sacrifice fly by Dustin Woodcock, but Cunningham minimized the damage and settled into a groove for the next few innings on the mound. Southern Illinois had runners on base against Gateway starter Jordan Barrett throughout his five innings of work, but could not get the big hit they needed to break through, stranding eight men on base against him including five in scoring position.

Gateway would add on against Cunningham with a two-out RBI single in back-to-back innings- they took a 2-0 lead on Brent Sakurai's clutch knock in the fifth inning, and then after Joe Duncan responded with a two-out, RBI hit of his own that got the Miners on the board, Andrew Daniel came up with two outs and singled into left field to make it 3-1 Grizzlies after six full innings.

In the seventh inning, Anthony Jimenez got the Miners back within a single run at 3-2 with a leadoff solo home run to right-center field, and after stranding the tying run in scoring position in the seventh and eighth innings, Southern Illinois came up in the ninth inning still down a run after Jordan Brink (1-2) pitched a scoreless frame in the bottom of the eighth.

Jimenez led off the ninth with a walk, and Gianfranco Wawoe hit a ground ball that just stayed fair up the third base line, with Connor Owings' throw to second base not in time to get a hustling Jimenez. A wild pitch by Dakota Smith (0-1) put the runners at second and third base with still no one out in the inning, and Stephen Lohr came through with a sacrifice fly to tie the game at 3-3. Andy Cosgrove then followed by hitting a go-ahead sacrifice fly to center field to score Wawoe and give the Miners their first lead of the night at 4-3.

That lead would hold up as Gabe Gentner struck out two for his seventh save of the season as the Miners took the series opener. In the process, Cunningham threw his ninth-straight "quality start," allowing three runs in six innings with seven strikeouts, while Jimenez led the offense with a 2-for-3 game that included two walks and two runs scored along with an RBI.

Thursday doubleheader: Miners lose four-run lead in opener, shut out in nightcap

The Southern Illinois Miners dropped both ends of their doubleheader on Thursday night against the Windy City ThunderBolts, losing in seven innings in both contest by scored of 6-5 and 3-0 to drop their first home series of the season at Rent One Park.

Things started off well for Southern Illinois in game one, as Gianfranco Wawoe's two-run home run in the bottom of the first inning extended his hit streak to 13 and put the Miners ahead 2-0. In the third inning, Southern Illinois loaded the bases on three walks in a row leading off before Andy Cosgrove doubled to right field for a 4-0 advantage after three innings.

But that was where the good feelings ended for the Miners in Marion. Windy City scored four times in the top of the fourth inning to tie the game against Cody Thompson and Andrew Bernstein, and then took the lead for good in the next inning when Brynn Martinez led off with a walk against Bernstein (1-1) and stole second base before scoring on Tyler Alamo's RBI double. In the sixth, they added another run to lead 6-4, and the Miners attempted to rally back in the bottom of the seventh by loading the bases with one out for Stephen Lohr, whose sacrifice fly cut the deficit to one at 6-5 and put the tying run at third base. But two batters later, Jarrod Watkins grounded out with the bases loaded to end the game.

In game two, the ThunderBolts jumped on Greg Marino early, as a leadoff error was followed by a Martinez RBI triple and an Alamo RBI double, with a wild pitch and an RBI groundout by Chase Cockrell making the score 3-0 immediately. That would be the only offense Windy City would muster in the game, as Marino (1-1) settled down from there to throw five innings and allow just two other hits with four strikeouts and only one walk.

But Southern Illinois' bats were nearly completely silenced by Cole Bellair (2-1), as the rookie right-hander took a no-hitter into the seventh inning, and after a pair of walks to Lohr and Cosgrove that frame, Arturo Nieto singled up the middle with two outs to load the bases and chase Bellair from the game. But a strikeout of Joe Duncan by Connor Mayes ended the contest as the Miners were shut out for the first time this season and lost back-to-back home games for the first time in 2019.