Smith Walks Off Mississippi With First Professional Hit
SAUGET – The Gateway Grizzlies turned what was nearly another heartbreaking loss on their longest home stand of the season into a triumphant victory, as rookie infielder Sawyer Smith hit a comeback, walk-off, two-run double with two outs and two strikes in the bottom of the ninth inning of his professional debut to lift Gateway to a dramatic, 5-4 win at Arsenal BG Ballpark on Thursday afternoon.
The first three innings were scoreless and nearly perfect from both Bennett Stice and Jeremy Peguero, and it was Stice who broke first, with Jack Holman’s two-out RBI double in the top of the fourth inning giving Mississippi a 1-0 lead. The Grizzlies answered back with two outs in the bottom of the inning on a go-ahead, two-run home run by D.J. Stewart, putting Gateway up 2-1.
In the following frame, Abdiel Diaz led off with a single and stole second base before Edwin Mateo lined an automatic RBI double down the right field line that increased the Gateway lead to 3-1. Mississippi was also able to answer right back on a two-out RBI single by Samil De La Rosa off Stice to make it 3-2, but the Gateway starter kept his team in front by finishing the inning for the “quality start.”
More trouble befell the Gateway bullpen, however, as the Mud Monsters used two leadoff singles to kickstart a game-tying rally against Matt Hickey in the seventh, with Victor Diaz making the score 3-3 on a pinch-hit RBI groundout. It remained a tie game into the ninth, when Keegan Collett surrendered a go-ahead solo home run to Nilo Rijo, putting the Mud Monsters in front 4-3, and setting up the dramatic bottom of the ninth.
Sergio Sanchez (2-5) hit Stewart with the first pitch of the inning, putting the tying run on base. After Victor Castillo was called out on strikes, Diaz walked to put the winning run on first, but Mateo popped out to the shortstop for the second out.
Smith, who to that point was 0-for-3 with two strikeouts in his professional debut game, came up to the plate to face Sanchez, and during his at-bat, a passed ball moved the runners to second and third base. On a 3-2 pitch, the first-year shortstop from the University of Kansas smacked the ball the other way down the left field line into the corner, scoring both Diaz and Stewart to secure his first professional hit as well as the series win in one fell swoop for the Grizzlies.
Gateway will look to ride the momentum from their second walk-off win of 2025 on the road, as they head to Washington, Pennsylvania to open up a three-game weekend series against the Wild Things on Friday, August 8. First pitch at EQT Park is scheduled for 6:05 p.m. CT.
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