Huge Rally In Ninth Gives Miners Home Sweep
July 30, 2014 - Frontier League (FL)
Southern Illinois Miners News Release
Marion, Ill. (July 29, 2014) - Trailing 5-2 entering the bottom of the ninth inning, the Southern Illinois Miners mounted an improbable comeback, scoring four runs in the frame to storm back and sweep the Florence Freedom at Rent One Park by a final score of 6-5 in the series finale on Tuesday night, their 13th win in their last 16 contests overall and second walk-off win in as many nights.
The Freedom brought their closer, Jorge Marban (2-4), into the game up by three in the ninth. The rally began right away, as Frank Martinez led off the inning with a walk, and went to second on a wild pitch with Chris Burke batting. Burke then walked, and Aaron Gates followed with yet another free pass to put the tying run on first and load the bases with no one out.
After Marban got the first out with a swinging strikeout, Phil Butler parked a base hit into left-center field, scoring Martinez and Burke and moving Gates to third with the tying run. A throwing error by left fielder Ryan Solberg allowed Butler to take second base, and Tyler Booth pinch-ran for him.
The rally was then completed when Matt Howard blooped a single to right down the line, scoring Gates to tie the score before another throwing error, this time on the right fielder Buddy Sosnoskie, allowed Booth to come home for the winning run.
The monumental comeback came after Florence had struck for four runs in the seventh inning to turn a 2-1 Miners lead into a 5-2 advantage. It also completed a sweep for the Miners at home for the first time since June 5th as Southern Illinois moved to within one game of the idle Evansville Otters and Washington Wild Things for first place in the Frontier League's East division, the closest the Miners have been to first place this season.
The Miners fell behind in each of the three games with Florence, and were down 1-0 in the first before Martinez drove home Niko Vasquez with an RBI double down the right field line. Gates then gave the Miners the lead with a solo home run in the fifth to make it 2-1, setting up the finish in the later innings.
James Woods (1-0) earned his first professional win with a scoreless top of the ninth, with Martinez, Butler and Howard all getting multiple hits in the game, the second time the Miners won a game entering the ninth inning trailing this season.
The Miners will next head to Normal for a three-game series against the CornBelters beginning on Wednesday night at 7:00 p.m. Steve Hagen will make his first professional start for Southern Illinois against Normal's Kurt Schluter.
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Frontier League Stories from July 30, 2014
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- Huge Rally In Ninth Gives Miners Home Sweep - Southern Illinois Miners
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