Gateway Grizzlies to open 2019 season against Frontier League power Schaumburg
The Gateway Grizzlies will open their 2019 season GCS Credit Union Ballpark in Sauget against the Schaumburg Boomers Friday with an almost entirely new look.
Veteran manager Phil Warren’s roster includes just four players — pitchers Dakota Smith, Grant Black, and Patrick Boyle as well as shortstop Brent Sakurai — who were on Gateway’s roster last season.
“That is the fewest returners we’ve had before this year was probably nine or 10, or something like that,” Warren said. “This year obviously blows that away. The vibe is different this year — the blood’s different — from staff to players. We have a really good group of guys that I can tell are going to play for each other and themselves, so I’m excited to get out there and watch these guys do that.”
Left-hander Jordan Barrett will be the Grizzlies’ starter in Friday’s 7:05 p.m. game agasint the Boomers. Right-handers Chris Carden and Reign Letkeman will pitch on Saturday and Sunday to close out Gateway’s opening series of the season.
Barrett, 23 , spent the last two seasons in the Toronto Blue Jays’ minor-league system. He briefly reached the Double-A New Hampshire Fisher Cats last season and compiled a 9-4 record with a 3.10 ERA over 110 1/3 innings with four different Toronto affiliates.
Carden, 24, enters his first season with the Grizzlies and second in professional baseball in 2019. He pitched in 15 games for the Gulf Coast League Rays in 2017 and posted a 3.86 ERA over 21 innings. He struck out 15 and walked 12.
Letkeman, another first-year Grizzlie, is in his fourth year since being a 23rd-round pick of the Tampa Bay Rays in the 2015 MLB Draft.
Former St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago Cubs relief pitcher Lee Smith, who will be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame this summer, will be making an appearance at Friday’s owner. A special ticket package includes a field box seat, pregame food, an autograph and meet-and-greet with Smith.
This story was originally published May 9, 2019 at 2:32 PM.