Home Baseball Miners Top Grizzlies In Series Opener

Miners Top Grizzlies In Series Opener

by Jason Guerette
The Southern Illinois Miners took an early lead against the Gateway Grizzlies and held it, weathering a couple of late pushes by their opponents and taking the series opener on Tuesday night at GCS Ballpark by a score of 5-4.
The Miners jumped out in front in the top of the third inning when Brian Portelli led off with a single and moved to second on a groundout. Michael Earley then doubled him home for a 1-0 Miners lead. They would extend that lead out to 4-0 in the next inning. After Jon Minucci reached on an infield single, Brendan Slattery replaced him at first on a fielder’s choice for the second out. Portelli then singled followed by a walk from Aaron Gates to load the bases. Earley followed with an RBI single to make it 2-0 before Niko Vasquez followed with a two-run single of his own, putting the Miners up four.
Adam Lopez (5-0) pitched a quality start over six innings, striking out six and giving up only four hits. One of the hits was a two-run homer by Ben Waldrip in the bottom of the fourth to cut the Miners’ lead to 4-2. After the score stayed 4-2 for two innings, the Miners plated what ended up being the winning run when Vasquez tripled off the wall in right-center for his second hit in his first game against his former team since being traded to Southern Illinois after the all-star break last season.Frank Martinez drove him in with a sacrifice fly, making it 5-2.
The Grizzlies rallied for two runs off of the bullpen in the seventh inning, but stranded two baserunners when Evan Mott came in and struck out Waldrip to preserve the lead. After Mott hit Grant Buckner and walked Madison Beaird, Pete Perezrelieved him in the eighth with no one out and got out of the jam following a sacrifice bunt, a fielder’s choice and a strikeout. Perez struck out two in a 1-2-3 ninth to earn the six-out save, his fourth of the season, and nail down the win for Lopez and the Miners.
Vasquez and Earley led four Miners with two hits apiece as they out-hit the Grizzlies 11 to five in the contest to take the opener of the midweek series, their fifth consecutive win over Gateway on the road dating back to June of last season. Weather permitting, game two of the series will take place at 7:05 p.m. on Wednesday, with Rick Teasley taking the hill against Gateway right-hander Max Schonfeld.
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Jason Guerette is the Grizzlies' Director of Broadcasting and Media Relations and the "Voice of the Grizzlies." 2023 will be his second season with the organization, handling lead broadcasting duties on the Grizzlies Media Network as well as being in charge of all team press releases and game-day media materials.

2023 will also be Jason's ninth season in the Frontier League after spending 2014-21 in the same role with the Southern Illinois Miners. Overall, he has broadcasted close to 800 games in the league, including playoffs. During the baseball offseason, he serves as a play-by-play broadcaster for Manhattan College and the New Jersey Institute of Technology, with games being seen on ESPN+ among other platforms.

In addition to broadcasting, Jason works as a public address announcer for Seton Hall University women's basketball as well as Columbia University men's and women's basketball. He also spent nine years working "behind the scenes" as a freelance board operator and highlight editor at Westwood One for their coverage of the NFL, NCAA football, and NCAA basketball.

Jason graduated from Seton Hall in 2012 with B.A. in Communication Studies and a minor in Broadcasting & Visual Media.

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