Grays welcome thousands of fans with season-opening doubleheader, but lose both games
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POCATELLO — The Gate City Grays, who were eliminated in the semifinals of last season’s Northern Utah League playoffs, opened their 2025 campaign with a home doubleheader Saturday against the Smithfield Blue Sox.
Smithfield (2-0) won both games, by scores of 5-1 and 12-5, but, as team owner Terry Fredrickson explained, his Grays (0-2) are notoriously slow starters. Gate City will play, at least for a couple weeks, shorthanded — with several players still having returned from their college baseball seasons. And several of the players who took the field Saturday were seeing the Grays’ home field, Halliwell Park, for the first time.
Fredrickson said that, while he was setting up the field for Saturday’s games, a player arrived whom he did not recognize. When he pointed the player toward the Blue Sox clubhouse, the player, Sergio Cejud, introduced himself as the Grays’ newest player.
“I was like, ‘Welcome.’ I felt like an idiot,” Fredrickson told EastIdahoSports.com with a laugh.
That sort of thing is to be expected, however. In addition to the standard late arrival of many regulars, this year’s Gate City roster made up of 80% new players.
While meeting with the players between the two games Saturday, Fredrickson said, he told the players to have fun but also to introduce themselves to someone in the second game — be it a fan or teammate.
Among the players who have yet to report are stalwarts Easton and Slayder Watterson, lead-off man Rogelio Gonzalez and star third baseman JD Gunderson.
“We have a lot of firepower out there, but we still have a lot of firepower coming — we have a lot of pitching coming,” Fredrickson said. … “I always tells our fans, ‘Until about June 20, it can be rough.'”
Despite that knowledge, fans support came in droves with several thousand in attendance.
Fredrickson believes that the support was “100%” a statement from the community that it missed baseball and is excited to have the Grays’s return.
“This is a town that loves their team,” he said, offering a story about a recent trip he took to Detroit with his wife and co-owner, Erica Fredrickson.
There, the couple attended a Tigers (MLB) game and was surrounded by hardworking fans who brought intense passion and love to the ballpark, and were happy to shower that love on their ball club. He told Erica that the fans would fit right in at Halliwell, amongst Grays supporters.
“That’s how are fans are,” he said. … “These people work hard, they work hard, and they come here and support their team hard — this is their outlet. … That’s how we are wired in Pocatello, we’re a baseball town.”
When he met with the roster, specifically the 20 or so new players, Fredrickson told them that the easiest way to lose fan support in Pocatello is to give less than 100%. The hardworking community expects the clubs that represent it to be hardworking, he said.
And they support in the same way, win lose or draw.
Fredrickson spoke about the undying support he has received from Grays fans, growing emotional while telling EastIdahoSports.com about an interaction he had with one fan on Saturday. The fan offered him a donation, asking to help pay for equipment, travel, whatever the team needed. When Fredrickson declined, the fan demanded he accept, while refusing to accept anything in return.
“We don’t have this without them,” he said. “Your constant support and your belief … it means the world to me.”
On the field, Gate City kept game one of the double-dip tight, behind starter Trem Tolman. But the Blue Sox caught up to Tolman in the fifth, tagging him for two runs. They scored twice more in the sixth before Tolman was lifted having never recorded an out in the inning.
Reliever Xavier McGhee tossed 2 scoreless, but the Grays offenses stalled after scoring once in the bottom of the first.
Smithfield got rolling early in the second game, knocking starter Brayden Pieper out with two down in the second.
Gate City shortstop Tyler Vance collected four hits on the afternoon, including a homer in game two, while driving in two runs and scoring three — among them, the Gray’s lone game-one run.
The Grays are back in action Wednesday, when they visit Logan to face the Royals. They return to Pocatello on June 20, to host those same Royals.