The Southern Illinois Miners got a season-high four hits from Frank Martinez on his 30th birthday as well as 11 strikeouts from Matt Bywater to earn an 8-4 win over the Windy City ThunderBolts on Sunday evening at Rent One Park for their fourth win in a row, tenth straight over Windy City dating back to last season and a six-game season-series sweep for the third time in franchise history over any opponent.
The Miners jumped in front with four runs in the third inning against Windy City starter Jake Fisher (2-5). After Aaron Gates and Michael Earley worked back-to-back leadoff walks and Niko Vasquez reached on an infield single, Martinez smacked a two-run single for a 2-0 Miners lead. Later in the inning, with two outs, Brian Portelli drove home two more with a double down the left field line to make it 4-0 Southern Illinois.
Bywater (7-2) did the rest, as the reigning Pitcher of the Year fanned 11 batters (one off his season and career-high), allowing two runs on six hits while walking only one batter. The two runs he allowed came in the top of the fourth on a two-run double by Max White, as he earned his first win since June 17th with the Miners also winning a game he had started for the first time since that date.
The Miners would blow it open in the seventh with four more runs. Martinez got his fourth hit of the contest with an RBI single that made the score 5-2 before Joe Rapp came up and launched his first home run of the season, a three-run blast into the Miners’ bullpen that made the score 8-2. Windy City would score single runs in the eighth and ninth for the final margin.
Martinez finished 4-for-4 in the game to lead Southern Illinois offensively, while Vasquez, Portelli and Gates each had two hits in the game. The Miners pounded out 12 more hits in the contest, bringing their total for the three-game weekend series to 42 with their fifth double-digit hit total in their last six games overall. The win brought the Miners their fourth win in a row as well, the first time since late May that they had won at least that many consecutive contests.
After a day off on Monday, the Miners remain at home for a three-game series with the Gateway Grizzlies beginning on Tuesday night at 7:05 p.m. Jarett Miller will take the ball for the Miners against Gateway’s Trevor Richards.
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.
