SAUGET, Ill. — The Gateway Grizzlies earned their first sweep and four-game winning streak of 2019 with a 12-3 romp Sunday over the River City Rascals at GCS Credit Union Ballpark.
River City (52-39) jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the top of the first inning, but the Grizzlies (37-53) rattled off the final 12 runs of the ballgame.
Connor Owings crushed a two-out, two-run homer to right-center field in the third inning to get the Grizzlies on the board. They were still behind 3-2 through the fifth inning. Prior to Sunday’s win, the Grizzlies had been 6-39 (.133) this season when trailing after five innings.
Gateway tied the game in the sixth inning on a Greg White sacrifice fly to center field that scored Dustin Woodcock.
Owings led off the seventh inning with a walk, advanced to second base on a wild pitch, then scored on an Andrew Daniel RBI single. After Daniel was thrown out trying to move up to second on the play, Woodcock homered to over the right-field fence. It was his 12th blast of the year and tied him with Luke Lowery for the team lead.
But the Grizzlies were far from finished.
Wesley Jones singled, Gunnar Buhner walked, White singled, Cletis Avery singled, Zak Taylor singled, Owings walked, and Daniel doubled before the inning ended. Gateway scored seven runs on seven hits in the seventh. Jones, Buhner, White, and Owings all scored runs; Avery (2), Taylor, and Daniel (2) drove them in. Counting Daniel’s RBI single to give the Grizzlies the lead earlier in the inning, he knocked in three runs in one frame.
White added a two-run homer in the eighth to tie a bow on the Grizzlies’ 12-3 win.
Dominic Topoozian gave the Grizzlies a quality start with three runs allowed over 6 2/3 innings. Jason Seever (2-1) earned the victory with 1 1/3 scoreless innings out of the bullpen and four strikeouts; he worked out of two different bases-loaded jams. Grant Black fired a perfect ninth with a pair of punchouts to finish the game.
Gateway will take Monday off before opening a three-game series on the road against the Evansville Otters with a 6:35 p.m. CDT first pitch Tuesday at historic Bosse Field.
