By Greg Halbleib
SAUGET – The Normal CornBelters held a slim early lead but lost on a grand slam walk-off 6-3 to the Gateway Grizzlies on Tuesday night at GCS Ballpark.
The CornBelters cracked open the scoring quickly in the opening inning when Mark Micowski led off with a walk, went to third on a single by Santiago Chirino and scored on a double play. Chirino led off the fourth with his third home run of the past week and his fourth long ball of the season to extend the Belters lead to 2-0.
The Grizzlies strung together three hits in the fifth inning to score their first run on an RBI single by Seth Heck with two outs and cut the deficit to 2-1. The hosts tied the game in the eighth by drawing a one-out walk to Blake Brown, who went to third on a single and scored on a sacrifice fly to deep center field by Grant Buckner.
The Belters took the lead in the ninth with a lead-off double from Pat McKenna followed by two walks, one intentional, to load the bases, with Jim Vahalik driving home the run with a sacrifice fly to center field.
The Grizzlies took advantage of wildness from Belters right-hander Cole Brocker (4-2), who gave up three walks to load the bases and a two-out grand slam home run from Blake Brown to right center field to end the game.
Jordan Wellander (3-2) picked up the win in relief. The Grizzlies improve to 35-48, seventh in the Frontier League West Division, and pick up their fifth win in seven games this season against the CornBelters. Normal falls to 52-33 and their lead in the West drops back to four games over River City, and their magic number to clinch their first-ever playoff berth remains at two (combination of Belters wins and Florence losses).
The CornBelters continue the series on Wednesday at 7:05 p.m. as right-hander Kevin Johnson (7-4, 3.45 ERA) starts on the mound for Normal and lefty Jordan Spencer (2-1, 3.37) takes the ball for Gateway. The broadcast on WJBC.com begins at 6:50 p.m. Tuesday from GCS Ballpark in Sauget, Ill.
