Home Baseball Grizzlies Bounce Back in 9-7 Win Over Otters

Grizzlies Bounce Back in 9-7 Win Over Otters

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The Gateway Grizzlies battled back from two early deficits to defeat the Evansville Otters 9-7 on Wednesday night at GCS Ballpark.

The Grizzlies (23-38) trailed 2-0 and 5-3, but used strong bullpen work and timely hitting to complete the comeback. The Otters (42-20) lost for just the second time in 11 games since the All-Star break.

Evansville tallied two early runs in the first two innings off Gateway starter Jason Ziegler. Josh Allen homered in the first inning and John Schultz singled home a run in the next inning to put the Otters up 2-0.

The Grizzlies had an answer for every Evansville rally in the early portion of the game. Gateway plated three runs in the bottom of the second inning to answer right back and take the lead. Blake Brown led off the inning with a walk, advanced to third after Tyler Tewell doubled and came around to score on a wild pitch. With two outs, Craig Massoni hammered a home run over the left field wall to score Tewell and put Gateway on top 3-2. The home run came in Massoni’s first at-bat in over a month.

This back-and-forth game featured an answer from the Otters in the next half inning. A one-out single by Jeremy Nowak put runners at first and second for Nik Balog. Balog delivered with a single to tie the game and JD Dorgan followed with an RBI groundout to give Evansville a 4-3 lead. Dakota Smith (1-0) entered for Gateway and walked in a run before getting out of the inning with the Grizzlies trailing 5-3.

Smith was fantastic on the mound aside from the early command issues. He pitched 3.2 scoreless innings of one-hit ball to earn his first professional win. The outing included a career-high seven strikeouts.

Gateway took advantage of Smith’s strong outing with six combined runs in the fourth and fifth innings. Tyler Tewell homered to start the four-run fourth inning. Grant Buckner followed with a double and the Grizzlies loaded the bases after two consecutive walks. Cody Livesay then tied the game at 5-5 with an RBI groundout before Ben Waldrip delivered a two-RBI single to put Gateway back on top, 7-5.

Evansville starter Tyler Vail (7-3) retired Tewell to begin the fifth inning, but then surrendered three consecutive hits. Buckner singled and Richard Seigel the laced a double. Massoni followed with an RBI single to extend the Gateway lead. Antonio Sandifer helped add one more with an RBI groundout to plate Seigel and put the Grizzlies ahead, 9-5.

The Otters would get two runs in the eighth inning on a home run from Dane Phillips. Tyler Thompson closed the door with a perfect ninth inning to secure his fifth save of the season.

Buckner, Massoni and Tewell all had multi-hit games for Gateway. Buckner led the way with a 3-4 performance at the dish.

The Grizzlies and Otters will play for the final time in the regular season on Thursday night in the series finale. First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. RHP Vince Molesky (3-3, 5.54) will take the mound for the Grizzlies and RHP Brett Marshall (0-0, 0.00) will pitch for Evansville. Sam Levitt and Kevin Schaefer will call the action on the Grizzlies Radio Network, which airs on 101 ESPN’s digital channels and 1400 AM KJFF.

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