Schaumburg Boomers designated hitter Quincy Nieporte set a Frontier League record with 10 RBIs, all of which came in the first three innings, Wednesday night and the Gateway Grizzlies lost 13-8 at GCS Credit Union Ballpark.
Over almost 27 full seasons of Frontier League baseball, six different players — including former Grizzlies outfielder Jon Myers — had driven in nine runs in a single game. Former Windy City ThunderBolts standout P-Nut Williams was the first to do it in 2004. Nieporte broke the record in three innings.
The former Florida State Seminole hit a three-run homer in the first inning to put the Boomers (43-43) on the board, then followed it with a three-run double in the second, and a grand slam in the third over the center-field fence to set the record.
Gateway (33-53) had a strong offensive game in its own right but lost a fourth straight game. Connor Owings led off the Grizzlies’ first inning with a solo homer, Andrew Daniel homered for the second straight game with a two-run shot in the third, and Luke Lowery blasted his team-leading 12th big fly of the year in the seventh.
Owings, Lowery, Brent Sakurai, and Dustin Woodcock had multi-hit games for the Grizzlies.
Chris Carden (7-4) took the loss. He allowed 13 runs (only six earned) over four innings and struck out five.
Jason Seever and Dakota Smith combined to toss four scoreless innings out of the Grizzlies’ bullpen. Smith’s two innings were perfect and he fanned four.
Gateway and Schaumburg will finish their three-game series Thursday with a 6:35 p.m. CDT first pitch.
