BROWN HEROIC AGAIN, GRIZZLIES CLINCH SERIES
Blake Brown crushed his fourth home run in three games to propel the Grizzlies to a 10-9 win at GCS Credit Union Ballpark on Saturday night.
The Grizzlies started the scoring when Evan Rogers crushed a lead-off solo home run over the left field wall.
After a scoreless second inning, the floodgates opened. River City added four runs in the top of the fourth inning on four hits. Jason Merjano added three of those runs on a three-run home run over the right field wall. After holding the Grizzlies scoreless in the bottom of the third inning, River City picked up two more runs in the top of the fourth inning to take a 6-1 lead.
It looked all but over for the Grizzlies in the fourth inning when the momentum was completely on the side of the Rascals. Gateway was up to the challenge.
The Grizzlies outscored River City 7-5 from the fourth inning through the seventh inning to narrow the deficit. River City held a slim 9-8 lead heading into the eighth inning.
With two outs in the bottom of the eighth inning, Grizzlies outfielder Blake Brown unloaded on a fastball and drove it over the right field wall to take a late 10-9 lead.
Kaleb Earls came in and took care of the Rascals in the top of the ninth and the Grizzlies clinched their first series victory of the young 2017 season.
Brown finished 3-4 on the night, picking up two RBIs on the home run. Josh Bunselmeyer also had a successful night at the plate, going 4-5 with two runs scored.
Brown now leads the Frontier League in home runs (7) and RBIs (22).
The offense exploded for ten runs off of sixteen hits on Saturday night.
"One through nine, you are starting to see everybody take much better at-bats," said Grizzlies' skipper Phil Warren. "Whether they get a hit or not, they are committed to their approaches right now. That's going to pay off."
The Grizzlies will look to sweep their first series of the season on Sunday night. First pitch is set for 6:05 p.m. You can catch all of the action on the Grizzlies Media Network.