CRESTWOOD - The Miners gambled twice with league MVP Phil Hawke. Southern Illinois walked Mike Coles twice to get to Hawke. Both times Hawke made them pay with RBIs.

The final blow came in the bottom of the 10th inning in Southern Illinois' 9-8 loss Friday to Windy City in Game 1 of the Frontier League division playoffs.

Mike Phelps came out for his second inning in the 10th and was undone with some shaky defense. Mike Victor, who entered the game as a pinch hitter in the ninth, committed a fielding error at second base that allowed leadoff hitter Gilberto Mejia to reach base. Mejia was sacrificed to second base before Phelps issued an intentional base-on-balls to Coles, who had three hits and one RBI. Hawke followed with a shot to the left-center wall that scored Mejia as Windy City took the first step in defending its 2007 FL championship.

Southern Illinois used six Windy City errors to claw back into an 8-all tie in the top of the ninth inning. Matt Petty blew his second save in a row against the Miners after ThunderBolts shortstop Wes Long's fifth error of the night helped the Miners tie the game.

Tim Dorn, Brendan Akashian and Eric Suttle all scored in the ninth. Two of the Miners' three ninth-inning runs were unearned.

Petty threw 35 pitches and retired two batters before giving way to right-hander Brandon Garner with the bases loaded and Joey Metropoulos at the plate. Metropoulos flied out to end the inning.

Metropoulos had two hits and two RBIs. Tim Dorn had three hits and drove in one run. Metropoulos and Andre Miller scored two runs apiece.

Starter Ryan Bird gave up six earned runs on eight hits and three walks in an improbable five-inning no-decision. Bird struck out seven, but left the game down 6-2 after allowing three runs in the fifth inning.

Windy City starter Ross Stout befuddled the Miners for six innings after shutting them out in a complete-game one-hitter on Aug. 28. He wasn't efficient in walking five, but allowed only four hits with four strikeouts. A pair of Long's errors with two outs in the seventh helped Southern Illinois to three unearned runs as they trimmed their deficit to 6-5.

The Miners jumped ahead early with a brief lead. Metropoulos' first-inning double scored Miller for a 1-0 advantage. Hawke evened the score in the bottom half with a groundout that plated Gilberto Mejia from third base.

Windy City went ahead 3-1 in the second inning on Justin Tellam's two-run single. Tellam had two hits and two RBIs through nine innings.

Southern Illinois trimmed the deficit to 3-2 on two walks and a pair of errors from shortstop Long that allowed Joey Metropoulos to score from third in the fourth inning.

Southern Illinois stranded 13 base runners through nine innings. The Miners left the bases loaded in the seventh and ninth innings.

Miners' manager Mike Pinto was ejected in the seventh inning for arguing with Dan O'Connell after the veteran home plate umpire called Manny Paula out on strikes.

dw_norris@yahoo.com