SANTOS, GRIZZLIES WIN ON WALK-OFF
SAUGET, Ill. — Trae Santos' walk-off sacrifice fly in the bottom of the ninth inning Wednesday night delivered the Gateway Grizzlies a 3-2, come-from-behind victory over the Florence Freedom at GCS Credit Union Ballpark.
Gateway (34-47) snapped a six-game losing streak and won only its fourth game this season when trailing after five innings.
Blake Brown tied the game in the seventh inning with his 16th home run of the year — a solo shot — and his 64th of his Grizzlies career, which tied him with Landon Hernandez for third on Gateway's all-time home run list.
Paul Russo's RBI single in the second inning drove in Chace Sarchet and gave the Grizzlies the game's opening lead.
Florence (40-40) scored a run in the third inning and another in the fourth to take a middle-inning lead.
Brown was 2-for-3 with a pair of walks and a steal. Santos added a pair of singles prior to his walk-off sacrifice fly. Russo was 4-for-4, all singles.
Max MacNabb tossed seven innings of two-run ball to lower his season ERA to 3.54. But he did not factor in the decision and thus fell short of picking up his ninth win, which would have tied him for the Frontier League lead. MacNabb's strikeouts raised his season total to 96 — third in the league and 24 from tying the Grizzlies' single-season franchise record.
Gateway will look for a two-game series sweep of Florence at 7:05 p.m. Thursday.
ABOUT THE GATEWAY GRIZZLIES: The Gateway Grizzlies are a professional baseball team, located a mere 100-yards from I-255 (10 minutes from downtown St. Louis). The Grizzlies offer baseball fans entertainment, the likes of which are difficult to find - affordable, family, fun in the comfortable GCS Credit Union Ballpark with a great view of the St. Louis skyline. For tickets or general information please visit gatewaygrizzlies.com or call 618.337.3000.
ABOUT THE FRONTIER LEAGUE: The Frontier League is a professional, independent baseball organization. Since its inception, the Frontier League has provided millions of fans to a fun and exciting baseball experience within the American Midwest. Consisting of 12 teams in two divisions and 96 game schedules, the league is recognized for the amount of talented athletes that are picked up by various MLB teams every year.