A passed ball with two outs in the bottom of the sixth inning plated two and those stood to be
the game-winning runs as the River City Rascals (20-20) raced past the Gateway Grizzlies
(10-31) for a 6-3 victory Monday night at CarShield Field.
The victory ends the seven game homestand with a 3-4 record and the Rascals avoided being
the team to snap the Grizzlies six game losing skid.
River City opened up the scoring in the bottom of the second as former Gateway Grizzly
Brandon Thomas singled for the first of his three hits and then with two outs, scampered across
the plate on a RBI double from Johnny Morales.
The Rascals would add one more in the frame against Grizzlies starter Alec Kisena via a RBI
single from Taylor Love to give him his eighth RBI of the year and put his team up by a pair of
runs.
The slim lead wouldn’t hold for long as the opponent loaded the bases with no outs in their next
opportunity. However, Rascals starter Reese Gregory kept the Grizzlies bats at bay the rest of
the inning and the only run that came into score was a RBI fielder’s choice off the bat of Matt
Hearn.
In the top of the fourth, newly acquired Brian Lees tied the game up with a two out RBI double to
score Evan Rogers and then two innings later a tough luck RBI groundout gave the Grizzlies
their only lead of the game.
Gregory would be put right back in line for the win though as his centerfielder showed off his
speed in the bottom of the sixth.
The bases were loaded with one out and after a pop out in foul territory that held all the runners
on their respective bases, Kisena’s 0-1 pitch to Taylor Love went through the legs of his catcher,
Lees, and when trying to retire Ludy who was coming in from third, Lees throw was errant and
also allowed Brandon Thomas to race home to give the Rascals a 4-3 lead.
The lead would hold the rest of the night and the Rascals scored their fifth run thanks to a RBI
fielder’s choice from Jason Merjano in the seventh and then a double steal in the eighth scored
Thomas to finalize the scoring in the 6-3 game.
“I was just going to third and then saw the ball overthrown and Brook quickly gave me the green
light so I didn’t hesitate and was able to score the run ,” Thomas said.
Reese Gregory earned his team leading fourth win of the year and his final line was seven
innings, allowing three runs, earned, on six hits and struck out three.
“I went out there and did what I could to help out the squad,” Gregory said. “Gateway was able
to get a few hits to take the lead but our offense has been hitting the ball hard lately and they
helped me out in a well fought game.”
Nick Kennedy tossed the eighth and Cody Mincey secured the victory with his second save in
as many days to send the Rascals on the road on a high note.
Offensively, the Rascals totaled 12 hits for the second day in a row and three players had a
multi-hit game. Thomas had his first three hit game of the year and then Jimmy Kerrigan and
Josh Ludy tallied a pair. Both of Ludy’s hits were doubles and Kerrigan also had a double.
River City continues their 2017 campaign with a three game road trip against the Western
Division Leader Florence Freedom Tuesday night.
First pitch from UC Health Stadium in Florence, Kentucky, is scheduled for 6:05 p.m.
