(Courtesy Southern Illinois Miners)
The Southern Illinois Miners scored two runs in the ninth inning, with Frank Martinez tying the game one batter before Aaron Gates won it with a long single, completing a comeback from down 3-1 and giving Southern Illinois their third walk-off victory of the season in a 4-3 victory at Rent One Park.
It is also the first walk-off win for the Miners in which they entered the final inning of play trailing in the game, as Chris Burke walked off Normal with a 12th-inning single on May 31st and Steve Marino hit a walk-off double against Evansville on June 21st, both in tied games before the walk-off hits.
The ninth-inning rally began when with one out, Tyler Booth singled into center field and was followed by Matt Howard’s high-bouncing grounder to third base that went off the glove of Rockford third baseman Brian Bistagne down the line, allowing Booth to go to third and Howard to go to second. After Jay Austin was intentionally walked to load the bases, Martinez and Gates tied, then won, the game with their hits.
It was Austin who drove in Marino with two outs in the seventh inning to make the score 3-2 in favor of Rockford in the seventh after the Aviators had taken the lead with three runs on four hits against Michael Carden in the fourth. Rockford would only end up with seven total hits in the contest, however, as Carden and James Bierlein (3-2) held the Aviators scoreless the rest of the way.
Every starter but one had a hit for Southern Illinois, led by Martinez’s 3-for-4 performance. Booth and Austin had two apiece as well for the Miners, who took the series by winning the first two games. They will go for the sweep tomorrow night at 5:05 p.m. against Rockford, with a starter yet to be determined for the Miners going against Kyle Brueggemann for the Aviators.
