The Gateway Grizzlies led 5-2 against the Schaumburg Boomers in the sixth inning on Friday night, but a costly error with two outs ended up leading to five runs in a 7-5 loss at Wintrust Field.Â
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Gateway took the lead in the first inning, loading the bases for Clint Freeman, who came through with a two-run single with two outs for a 2-0 lead. After Schaumburg got within 2-1 on Blake Grant-Parks’ RBI single in the second, Zach Racusin answered right away with a two-out RBI hit of his own to make it 3-1 in the third. Â
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Trevor Achenbach then expanded the lead to 4-1 with an RBI single of his own in the fourth, and after another Grant-Parks RBI hit got the Boomers within 4-2 in the bottom half, Freeman and Achenbach led off the sixth against Schaumburg starter Shumpei Yoshikawa (7-9) with back-to-back doubles, with Achenbach’s second RBI of the game making it 5-2.Â
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Brendan Feldmann (6-8) then recorded the first two outs of the bottom of the sixth on just three pitches. Wyatt Stapp singled past a diving Achenbach, and then Will Salas hit a ground ball to shortstop that would have ended the inning, but it was booted for an error by Abdiel Diaz, keeping the frame going. Grant-Parks then doubled to make it 5-3, and Alec Craig tied the score on a single at 5-5 before Braxton Davidson hit a 3-2 pitch by Feldmann over the left-center field wall for a home run, making the score 7-5.Â
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The Grizzlies would get the tying run to the plate in each of their last two turns at bat, and got it on base in the ninth with the potential lead run at the plate that inning, but would not be able to come back in losing the opener of the four-game series. They will look to bounce back on Saturday, August 27, at 6:00 p.m. CT, sending Lukas Veinbergs to the mound against Boomers lefty Kobey Schlotman in the second game of the series at Wintrust Field.
Jason Guerette is the Grizzlies' Director of Broadcasting and Media Relations and the "Voice of the Grizzlies." 2023 will be his second season with the organization, handling lead broadcasting duties on the Grizzlies Media Network as well as being in charge of all team press releases and game-day media materials.
2023 will also be Jason's ninth season in the Frontier League after spending 2014-21 in the same role with the Southern Illinois Miners. Overall, he has broadcasted close to 800 games in the league, including playoffs. During the baseball offseason, he serves as a play-by-play broadcaster for Manhattan College and the New Jersey Institute of Technology, with games being seen on ESPN+ among other platforms.
In addition to broadcasting, Jason works as a public address announcer for Seton Hall University women's basketball as well as Columbia University men's and women's basketball. He also spent nine years working "behind the scenes" as a freelance board operator and highlight editor at Westwood One for their coverage of the NFL, NCAA football, and NCAA basketball.
Jason graduated from Seton Hall in 2012 with B.A. in Communication Studies and a minor in Broadcasting & Visual Media.
