The Evansville Otters could not find an offensive spark Wednesday, being held by the Windy City Thunderbolts’ pitching staff to two hits in a 7-0 road loss.
Windy City’s Kenny Matthews pitched lights out against Evansville, going seven innings with seven strikeouts.
Like Tuesday night’s game, the Thunderbolts were able to strike first on Wednesday morning.
Centerfielder Patrick Mathis started the third inning with a solo home run to give Windy City an early 1-0 lead. Later in the inning, Blair Beck roped an RBI single into the outfield, extending the Thunderbolts lead to two.
In the sixth inning, shortstop Brynn Martinez smashed a two-run RBI double to the outfield, doubling the Windy City lead to four.
The sixth inning would spell the end of Otters pitcher Jake Welch’s start against his former club. He went six innings, allowing four runs on nine hits, and throwing five strikeouts.
In the seventh, P.J. Browne entered the game for Evansville and his first pitch to Tyler Alamo was a home run over the centerfield wall. Coming into today’s game, Alamo had a batting average of .100. The home run helped increase it to .240.
Browne would give up two more runs in the inning, as the Thunderbolts scored seven runs on 12 hits.
Keith Grieshaber, who had a .540 batting average entering Wednesday’s game, and Rob Calabrese recorded the lone hits in the game for the Otters, occurring in the first and third innings, respectively.
The Otters will look to take one game out of the three-game road series in the finale on Thursday. First pitch is scheduled for 10:35 a.m. for the second consecutive day.
