WASHINGTON, PA. – The Gateway Grizzlies faced Sudden Death against the Washington Wild Things on Thursday night at Wild Things Park to decide the three-game series, and it was Tate Wargo coming up huge with a game-winning, walk-off RBI single to deliver the road team a dramatic, 2-1 victory.
The game was scoreless through the first six innings, as Lukas Veinbergs and Joel Condreay kept Washington off the board, and Jordan DiValerio shut out the Grizzlies on the other side for the Wild Things.
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Neither side blinked until the top of the seventh inning, when Gateway struck the first blow. Kyle Gaedele began the rally with a one-out walk, the only one DiValerio would issue in the game. Mark Vierling followed with a single to put the lead run at second base. After a pop-out for the second out, Washington made a pitching change, bringing in Nick MacDonald to face D.J. Stewart, and the Grizzlies third baseman came through with an RBI single up the middle to put the Grizzlies ahead 1-0.
Thanks to Matt Hickey and Gage Vailes, the lead would hold until the bottom of the ninth, when Wagner Lagrange hit a game-tying solo homer off Nate Garkow (3-0). Garkow, however, would buckle down from there, striking out three straight hitters to send the game to extra innings, and then stranded the winning run at third base in the bottom of the 10th to keep the Grizzlies’ hopes alive.
In Sudden Death, the Grizzlies got an automatic runner placed at first base to start the frame against Justin Goosen-Brown, as the Wild Things chose to pitch in their home ballpark and run the risk of the Grizzlies walking off with a victory. Abdiel Diaz moved Cole Brannen to second base, putting the winning run in scoring position with a sacrifice bunt to lead off the extra frame.
That brought up Wargo, and on the second pitch of his at-bat, the Benld native scorched a base hit past the dive of Derek Gellos at first base, with Brannen scampering home just ahead of the throw by Alex Ovalles in right field to set off the walk-off road celebration.
Having clinched their first series win in the month of June in dramatic fashion, the Grizzlies will look to ride that momentum back home for the weekend, as they kick off a three-game set against the Lake Erie Crushers at Grizzlies Ballpark on Friday, June 21, at 6:30 p.m. CT. Deylen Miley will start for Gateway opposite Crushers southpaw Darrien Ragins in the series opener
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