SAUGET – The Gateway Grizzlies had a 7-1 lead after two innings, but squandered the early advantage in a 12-10 slugfest loss to the Joliet Slammers that completed a four-game sweep. Despite the defeat, the Grizzlies finished 2025 with an 8-4 record against the Slammers as the season series is concluded.
With two outs in the bottom of the first and the bases loaded, Victor Castillo hit a grand slam home run to right field off Joliet starter Aidan McEvoy, giving the Grizzlies their very first lead of the series at 4-0. After Braylin Marine hit a solo homer to right field to make it 4-1, Dale Thomas hit a three-run shot to right-center field, putting the Grizzlies ahead by six.
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That is when things began to go downhill. After Gage Vailes got the first two men out in the top of the third, he surrendered four straight hits, with an error attached to the fourth knock plating a second run in the frame after an RBI single by Marine, making the score 7-3.
In the next inning, after an Edwin Mateo RBI double got a run back and made the score 8-3, Vailes walked Liam McArthur with one out, and surrendered a two-run homer to Ian Battipaglia (his third of the series and the season), to make it 8-5. But the inning continued, and after Bryant Flete singled, the Grizzlies failed to turn a double play on a ground ball to shortstop, and Antonio Valdez doubled on the next pitch. A wild pitch then brought in another run to make the score 8-6.
D.J. Stewart would hit his second homer of the series in the following frame, a solo shot to increase the advantage to 9-6 as Gateway answered back again, but in the top of the sixth, with two outs, Alvery De Los Santos surrendered a two-run homer to Jose Contreras, making it a one-run game. In the seventh, the wheels would fall off, as a leadoff walk and error by Mark Shallenberger at first base opened the door for a four-run inning, with the Grizzlies falling behind 12-9.
Thomas led off the bottom of the seventh with a double, and scored two batters later on an RBI groundout by Stewart to make it 12-10, and Abdiel Diaz hit the Grizzlies’ fourth homer of the game in the bottom of the ninth to draw them back within a run at 12-11, but the Grizzlies could not get closer in suffering their first series sweep of three games or more in over two calendar years.
Now having lost five of their last six games, the Grizzlies will look to bounce back against the Windy City ThunderBolts on Friday, August 1, with first pitch at 6:30 p.m. CT.
