SAUGET, Ill. — The Gateway Grizzlies battled back with four runs in the eighth inning and one more in the ninth Sunday night, but their rallies stalled in a 10-8 loss to the Normal CornBelters at GCS Credit Union Ballpark.
Normal (16-20) scored five in the first inning, one in the second and four more in the third for the entirety of its scoring.
Gateway (17-23) bats tallied three in the first inning — headlined by a two-run Justin Ellison double — but fell silent until the eighth. Will Anderson (2-2) took the loss for the Grizzlies.
CornBelters first baseman Chris Iriart launched a grand slam in the first inning. It was his 12th round-tripper of the season and tied him for the league lead. More importantly, it gave Iriart home runs in each of his last four at-bats — he had smacked solo shots in each of his final three trips to the plate Saturday. Iriart unofficially became the first player in Frontier League history to homer in four straight at-bats. The MLB record is also four straight at-bats, most recently accomplished by Adrian Gonzalez in 2015 when he was a Los Angeles Dodger. Iriart’s three home runs Saturday night also tied a Frontier League single-game record.
Gateway scored four runs in the eighth, including a lead-off solo homer from Trae Santos. Santos was 2-for-4 and the big fly was his team-leading ninth of the year, which ranks third in the Frontier League. After the Grizzlies had already chipped Normal’s lead to 10-7 in the eighth, the bases were loaded with nobody out for Artemis Kadkhodaian, Blake Brown and Santos — the Grizzlies’ 2-3-4 hitters — but they were unable to bring any additional runs home.
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WATCH: Grizzlies Media Network Reaction to a 10-8 Gateway loss. https://t.co/saYtv0NE5Z
Gateway will hit the road for a seven-game trip starting with a single game Monday night against the River City Rascals before three games apiece against the Evansville Otters and Southern Illinois Miners. First pitch at River City is scheduled for 6:35 p.m. Monday.
