It seems only fitting that the Rascals open their newly renamed CarShield Field with their St. Louis metro rival, the Gateway Grizzlies. The Rascals (3-2) and Grizzlies (3-3) enter the weekend series in nearly identical positions and playing the best baseball they have played over this incredibly small sample size.
River City opened its season with a six-game road trip (of which they only played five because of rain) toward the eastern boundary of the Frontier League map. It was night and day between the two series. The Rascals played their season opener in Lake Erie, and the Crushers handed them an 0-2 record. A trip down and out of Ohio took them to Florence, Kentucky to play the Freedom. The Rascal pitching staff rebounded nicely, and the offense scored 17 runs to lead the three-game sweep. The Rascals are led at the plate by third baseman Josh Silver (.529/.600/.706) and center fielder and leadoff hitter Dominique Taylor (.429/.458/.429).
Photo by Tim Kaiser
The Grizzlies started their season at home hosting the Washington Wild Things. Despite outscoring Washington 19-15 in the series, the Wild Things took 2-of-3. The Grizzlies come to O’Fallon off a short trip to Marion, Illinois to take on the Southern Illinois Miners. After losing the opener, Gateway came back to win the backend of the doubleheader and the rubber match the following day. The Grizzlies’ leading hitters of this short season are outfielder Cody Livesay (.375/.423/.417) and Tyler Tewell (.333/.381/.722).
Last summer, the Grizzlies won the season series 5-4. The Rascals took 2-of-3 in the stadium formerly known as T.R. Hughes Ballpark.
Courtesy of FrontierLeague.com as of 5/19
Game 1:Â Zeb Sneed (Season Debut ) vs. Will Landsheft (1-0, 1.50 ERA) Friday, 6:35 p.m.
Game 2:Â Jason Ziegler (Season Debut) vs. Sasha Kuebel (0-1, 12.27) Saturday, 6:35 p.m.
Game 3:Â TBA vs. Dakota Smith (0-0, 0.00) Sunday, 4:05 p.m.
If you can’t make it to the ballpark, you can listen live on the Rascals Radio Network and follow the games on FrontierLeague.com.
Follow @TimJKaiser on twitter for all your Rascals news throughout the summer.
