The Southern Illinois Miners received another stellar start from left-hander Rick Teasley, taking a no-hitter into the seventh and finishing with seven more shutout innings while the Miners took an early lead and piled on in the middle frames for a 6-0 shutout win over the Gateway Grizzlies, taking the series two games to one after dropping the opener.
Teasley (8-2) allowed a leadoff walk to Cody Livesay but then embarked on a remarkable streak of 19 consecutive batters retired spanning the first through seventh innings. The Grizzlies got two hits that inning, but Teasley struck out the side, finishing with six strikeouts and just three baserunners allowed in winning his team-leading eighth game of the season as well as extending his personal scoreless streak to 23 innings in a row dating back to July 9th.
Offensively, the Miners jumped on Gateway starter Donny Murray (0-2) for two runs in the second on an RBI triple to right by Steve Marino and a sacrifice fly by Brian Portelli for a 2-0 lead. They extended that lead to 3-0 with a run thanks to a single and an error on the same play in the third, and then 5-0 with two more in the fifth on an RBI single by Michael Earley plus a stolen base by Earley and another Gateway error.
The Miners tacked on one run in the eighth inning against reliever Dakota Smith on another RBI hit for Earley, his fourth of the contest to tie his season and career high total, completing the scoring. It was the Miners’ ninth shutout win this season, and their first win in four tries in a home series “rubber match,” going into the final game with the series tied.
Having won five of six games out of the all-star break and six of seven overall, the Miners will now put a franchise-record streak of ten consecutive road series wins to the test when they meet the Florence Freedom in a three-game weekend road series beginning on Friday night at 6:05 p.m. CT. Reigning Pitcher of the Year Matt Bywater will take the hill for the Miners against Florence right-hander Jeremy Gooding.
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.
