O'FALLON, Mo. — Anyone who has followed the Southern Illinois Miners this season certainly wouldn't have predicted an outcome like this one.
Adam Lopez, who was the Frontier League's Pitcher of the Year in 2015 and served as the team's closer for the second half of this campaign in nearly perfect fashion, came in Tuesday night's first game of the Division Series playoff game against River City with the Miners holding a 3-0 lead.
Lopez got the last out of the eighth inning and came out again for the ninth, but gave up four runs with the last coming on a wild pitch as the Rascals stunned the Miners, 4-3, in walkoff fashion at CarShield Field to take the upper hand in the best-of-five series.
The Miners, who had the league's best record in the regular season at 63-33 and hold the top seed in the postseason as West Division champions, went ahead 2-0 in the third inning on a home run by Aaron Gates, then added a run in the seventh on a sacrifice fly by Toby DeMello.
That third run came after Alex De Leon walked and Nolan Earley doubled.
But the Rascals, who are facing the Miners in the postseason for the fourth time in the past seven years, got to Lopez in the ninth.
Josh Ludy singled and Josh Silver singled, then Kyle Gaedele tied the game with a three-run blast.
Lopez got Jason Merjano to fly out, but then Mike Jurgella doubled and advanced to third on a wild pitch, with yet another wild pitch bringing him plateward for the winning run.
Miners starter Jarett Miller went six innings and gave up three hits with seven strikeouts and one walk. Evan Mott, Rich Mascheri and Lopez kept it scoreless until the ninth.
Another weird twist to the game was that outfielder Brandon Cummins was ejected for arguing a strikeout call and backup catcher Riley Moore had to take his place in left field.
And Shane Kennedy, who won the Frontier League's batting title with the highest average and on-base percentage in addition to being named an all-star and the Rookie of the Year, went 0-for-3 with a walk and two strikeouts.
The series continues Wednesday night at CarShield Field and resumes in Marion at Rent One Park on Friday night at 7:05 p.m., with games if necessary on Saturday and Sunday also in Marion at 6:05 and 5:05, respectively.
All tickets for all playoff games in Marion will be $5.
In the other Division Series opener, the East Division champion Joliet Slammers won at Evansville, 4-2.
