The Gateway Grizzlies came back from a 4-0 deficit to tie the game in the bottom of the eighth inning against the Windy City ThunderBolts at GCS Credit Union Ballpark, but for the second night in a row, they were beaten by a Jairus Richards home run in the top of the ninth, suffering a 5-4 loss on Wednesday night.
Rookie Andres Rodriguez was sensational to start his professional debut, striking out nine batters in just four innings. But in his final inning of work, with the bases loaded and two outs, he allowed a double to Jake Boone that brought home all three runners and made it 3-0 Windy City. A two-out RBI single the following inning by Daryl Myers increased the margin to 4-0 ThunderBolts.
In the bottom half, Gateway made a rally, as Abdiel Diaz brought in a run with a ground ball to make it 4-1, and two batters later, Trevor Achenbach hit a two-run homer over the left field wall, his team-best seventh of the season, to slice the deficit to one run.
It would remain that way until the eighth, when after the Grizzlies got runners at second and third base with one out, Breland Almadova scored the tying run on a sacrifice fly to make the score 4-4. But after Carson Cupo (0-1) retired the first two batters of the top of the ninth, Richards hit the first pitch he saw over the center field wall for a go-ahead home run, and the Grizzlies would go down in order in the bottom half as they dropped their sixth contest this season in their opponent’s final turn at bat.
The Grizzlies will look to avoid a sweep against the ThunderBolts on Thursday night, June 2, at 6:45 p.m. at GCS Credit Union Ballpark, with Clint Freeman getting the ball on the mound against Windy City’s Bryan Ketchie.
Mick Lite served for 12 years in the military and is now an entrepreneur and photographer. Has worked as the official scorer and social media manager for the River City Rascals, Statistician for the Missouri Monsters and St. Louis Attack arena football teams, and as the Team Photographer and social media consultant for the St. Charles Chill, SLU Hockey, St. Louis Slam, and Gateway Grizzlies.
