The Southern Illinois Miners lost 10-1 on Sunday evening at Rent One Park in the series finale against the Washington Wild Things, settling for a two games to one series victory in Marion.
Former Miners pitcher Matt Sergey (3-3) pitched seven shutout innings for the visitors and struck out 10 as Southern Illinois’ starter Matt Bywater (6-2) allowed seven earned runs on 11 hits in only four innings of work to suffer the loss. Washington’s lineup, meanwhile, scored seven times in the first four innings, including four runs with two outs in the second to leap ahead of the Miners early in the contest.
Southern Illinois scored their only run in the bottom of the ninth. With two outs, Brendan Slattery battled his way on base, working a walk on ten pitches. Rookie Brian Portelli then singled to keep the game alive before Aaron Gates hit an RBI double to right-center field, scoring Slattery. Portelli was thrown out on the play at home for the final out of the ballgame, however, completing the rough night for Southern Illinois.
Gates reached base all five times he came to the plate, going 3-for-3 with an RBI and two walks, while Jerrud Sabourin also had two hits including a double, but the Miners were unable to keep the Wild Things down in the loss. Southern Illinois will head to Sauget next on Tuesday to take on the Gateway Grizzlies at 7:05 p.m., starting a stretch of nine of their final 12 games before the all-star break on the road. Adam Lopez will pitch the opener for the Miners.
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.
