Wednesday, September 03, 2003

By Pohla Smith, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

In retrospect, the Washington Wild Things probably wish Game 1 of their best-of-three Frontier League playoff series with the Gateway Grizzlies had been rained out.

Instead, they suffered through an occasional drizzle and a 7-3 defeat in their only home game of the first round, which now moves to Sauget, Ill., for Game 2 tomorrow and, if necessary, Game 3 Friday.

"We've got our backs against the wall now with two games to win at their place," Manager Jeff Isom said. "But we've got the personnel to do it."

The Wild Things loaded the bases with one out in the ninth, but Jeff Albert hit into a double play.

Gateway second baseman Tony Coyne led Gateway's onslaught with a pair of two-run doubles. Todd Oetting added a two-run, ninth-inning home run and Oscar Vargas an eighth-inning RBI single as the Grizzlies came back from a 3-2 deficit after six innings.

Dave Bradley, a 10-game winner for Washington during the regular season, was tagged with the loss, giving up four runs on seven hits over 6 2/3 innings.

The Grizzlies, Western Division regular-season champions, got 13 hits, three walks, a wild pitch and a balk against three Wild Things pitchers.

Adam Jahnsen was the winner, giving up three runs on four hits over seven innings.

The Grizzlies took a 2-0 lead on Coyne's double in the third. Brad Palmer led off with a walk, and, after Trevor Brown flied to left, took second on Vargas' sacrifice bunt. Jimmy Reiter walked, and both Brown and he came home when Coyne drove a double over the head of Wild Things right fielder Jake Bollig.

The Wild Things countered with three runs in the bottom of the third to take their only lead.

Zach Cates led off the inning and was hit on the hand with a pitch. Jeff Albert's sacrifice bunt moved Cates to second, and he took third on J.P. Schmidt's double to right. Albert and Schmidt scored on Jon Cahill's single to center. Cahill took second on the throw home, moved to third on Blake Woods' fly to center and scored on Bollig's bloop single to short center.

The Grizzlies regained the lead with a two-run seventh. After getting two strikeouts, Bradley walked Vargas, who took third on Reiter's single.

Jason Elkins relieved Bradley and yielded Coyne's second two-run double to give Gateway its 4-3 lead.

Gateway picked up a fifth run off Elkins in the eighth. Ben Piatt doubled with one out, took third on Elkins' balk and scored on Vargas' single up the middle.

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