The Gateway Grizzlies got a brilliant start from rookie right-hander Ben Harris (1-0) in his professional debut on Saturday night, with the Georgia Gwinnett alum firing six shutout innings to lead the club to a 2-0 win over the Joliet Slammers, clinching the weekend series victory at Slammers Stadium.
The contest was a true “pitcher’s duel” between Harris and Joliet southpaw C.J. Blowers (0-2), with neither pitcher blinking until the top of the fifth inning. Harris had four strikeouts and had not allowed a hit to that point, and it was a two-out walk drawn by Cole Brannen that ended up kickstarting the only run-scoring rally of the game.
After Brannen got on base, he stole second, and Gabe Holt followed with what turned out to be the game-winning hit, an RBI double to right-center field that made the score 1-0. On the very next pitch, Victor Castillo extended his hit streak to 10 games with an RBI single into shallow right-center field, doubling the Grizzlies’ lead to 2-0.
That was all Gateway needed. After Harris recorded scoreless frames in the fifth and the sixth to finish his debut outing, Alec Whaley and Keegan Collett tossed scoreless frames in the seventh and eighth innings, respectively, with Collett freezing Dan Wuestenfeld on a curveball to strand the bases loaded in the latter.
Leoni De La Cruz took over in the ninth inning, and the left-hander picked up his second save of the season as Gateway claimed the weekend series in Joliet as well as their second shutout victory of the season and first since opening weekend.
Gateway will now look to finish off the Chicagoland portion of their long road trip on Sunday afternoon with a series sweep at Slammers Stadium. Alvery De Los Santos will pitch for Gateway at Slammers Stadium against Joliet’s Aidan McEvoy, with first pitch scheduled for 1:05 p.m. CT.
