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Miners Pitch Their Way Past Beach Bums

by Jason Guerette

The Southern Illinois Miners received a fantastic start from Jarett Miller and came through in the late going to thwart Traverse City’s rally in the eighth en route to a 2-1 win over the Beach Bums at Wuerfel Park on Tuesday night.

Miller (3-1) pitched a gem on the hill for Southern Illinois, who improved their league-best road record to 15-4 with the victory. The right-hander gave up two hits in the first inning, including a leadoff home run to former Miners outfielder Jay Austin, but put the clamps on the Beach Bums’ lineup from there. After allowing a two-out infield single to Sam Bumpers, Miller would retire the next sixteen batters in a row in dominating through the middle innings.

Meanwhile, the Miners came back to tie the game at 1-1 on back-to-back doubles by all-stars Niko Vasquez and Frank Martinez in the fourth inning, and then took the lead for good in the fifth. Steve Marino led off and reached on a two-base error on second baseman Alex Tomasovich and went to third on a deep flyout. Rookie catcher Eric Strano, making his professional debut behind the plate for Southern Illinois in the game, then grounded a single into left through the drawn-in infield to give the Miners a 2-1 advantage. It was Strano’s first professional hit.

Miller held the fort until the eighth inning, when he walked the first two batters he faced to end the long batters-retired streak. The right-hander was able to pick off the lead runner for the first out, and then after a nine-pitch at-bat by Jeff DeBlieux, got a ground ball to first that went off the glove of Jerrud Sabourin, but Martinez recovered the ball on the play and was able to flip it back to Sabourin for a big second out. Eric Green then came on and after allowing an infield single to Austin struck out Tomasovich with runners at second and third to get the Miners out of the huge jam.

Pete Perez then pitched a 1-2-3 ninth inning for his sixth save as the Miners moved within one game of the first-place Beach Bums with the big win. Miller went 7 2/3 innings, allowing just one run on three hits, walking two and striking out a season-high eight to improve to 3-1 on the season. The Miners will meet the Beach Bums again on Wednesday night at 6:05 p.m. CT in the second game of the series, starting Rick Teasley against Traverse City’s Kramer Champlin.

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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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