Richard Seigel scored on a wild pitch in the 11th inning to give the Gateway Grizzlies a 3-2 win over the River City Rascals on Thursday night at GCS Ballpark.
The Grizzlies (9-21) entered the ninth inning trailing 2-0 before putting together some two-out magic and rallying all the way back. The Rascals (17-12) have now lost two series to the Grizzlies this season.
After the first two batters in the inning struck out, Blake Brown belted a home run over the left field fence to cut the deficit in half. The very next batter, Madison Beaird, followed suit with a home run of his own to tie the game at 2-2.
Up until the end of the ninth inning, LHP Lucas Laster (0-0) was pitching a gem in his professional debut. The southpaw had thrown 8.2 innings of three-hit ball before Brown belted one over the fence. Laster couldn’t close out the game and complete the shutout.
After both teams failed to score a run in the 10th inning, international tiebreaker rules came into effect for the first time during the Grizzlies’ season. Josh Ludy started the inning at second base with nobody out, but River City couldn’t bring him home. Gateway RHP Brett Zawacki got the first two batters to strikeout and completed a perfect 11th inning by getting Johnny Morales to fly out.
The Grizzlies completed their miraculous comeback moments later. Seigel began the inning at second base for Gateway and advanced to third on a groundout by Ben Waldrip. After Blake Brown walked, an 0-1 pitch to Madison Beaird went all the way to the backstop allowing Seigel to score and giving the Grizzlies their first walk-off win of 2015.
Gateway starter Tyler Thompson pitched well in the victory. He surrendered two runs on four hits. The first River City run came in the third inning on an RBI double by Curran Redal and the other came in the sixth inning on a Brian Hansen solo home run.
Gateway continues a six-game homestand Friday night when they welcome the Windy City ThunderBolts to town for a weekend series. First pitch is set for 7:05 p.m. Trevor Richards will make his Grizzlies debut on the mound and he will be countered by LHP Zak Wasserman (1-1, 5.40).
