For the second night in a row, the Gateway Grizzlies got a multi-homer game: Luke Lowery supplied a pair of big flies Saturday in a 5-0 Grizzlies rout of the Windy City ThunderBolts at Ozinga Field.
Lowery led off the second inning with a solo homer over the left-field fence to give the Grizzlies (31-38) a 1-0 lead, then doubled that advantage with a lead-off solo shot to right-center in the seventh inning.
Gateway won its third game in a row to match its season-long winning streak.
Luis Román scored later in the seventh on a Dustin Woodcock RBI double, then added a Grizzlies insurance run in the eighth on an RBI single that drove in Brent Sakurai, who topped off the scoring when he knocked in Cletis Avery with a single of his own in the ninth.
Woodcock’s double was his third extra-base hit and fourth RBI of the two games so far in the series after he homered twice in the opener Friday.
Chris Carden (6-2) tossed seven scoreless innings for the second time in his last three starts and allowed only five hits en route to his team-leading sixth victory. He struck out nine batters, one short of his career high.
Gateway has won four of five games over Windy City (29-42) at Ozinga Field this season, and three of those four victories have been shutouts.
Jason Seever and Grant Black fired scoreless frames in the eighth and ninth innings, respectively.
Sakurai and Román had three hits apiece. Sakurai stole a base. Lowery added a walk to his two big flies to finish 2-for-3. Avery went 1-for-3 with a walk in his Grizzlies debut after he was acquired from the Southern Illinois Miners in a trade Friday.
Gateway will go for its first series sweep and first four-game winning streak of 2019 at 5:05 p.m. CDT Sunday in the series finale against Windy City.
