Following a 45-minute rain delay before the ballgame, the Evansville Otters bested the Lake Erie Crushers in a thrilling return to Bosse Field Wednesday night by a score of 10-6.
The high-scoring affair got rolling in the bottom of the first inning, when Bryce Denton drove home Andy DeJesus from third on an RBI groundout, notching his seventh RBI of the season.
The Crushers answered in a big way in the top of the second, as Karl Ellison launched a grand slam to left field, giving the Crushers a 4-1 lead.
Otters’ starter Anthony Arias settled down after that, retiring the following three Crushers batters while finishing his performance with two scoreless innings in the third and fourth.
The Otters never gave up, chipping into the deficit in the bottom of the third to score two runs: one on an RBI single by DeJesus, and another on a Riley Krane sacrifice fly, logging his seventh RBI.
The Otters would take the lead in the bottom of the fourth, after Dakota Phillips tied the game with an RBI single and Miles Gordon hit a sacrifice fly to center.
Denver McQuary came out of the Otters’ bullpen to face the minimum over two innings of relief, issuing a walk in the sixth but rolling a double play ball to end the inning.
The Otters extended their lead in the bottom of the sixth to two runs, after DeJesus drove in his second RBI of the game, this time with two outs.
The Crushers battled back in the seventh, however, and managed to score two runs to tie the game off of Justin Lewis. Bryan DeLaRosa walked with the bases loaded, and Dylan Jones hit a sac fly to centerfield.
The Otters stormed back following the seventh inning stretch, as Dakota Phillips hit a go-ahead RBI single — his second lead-changing hit of the game — before Christopher Pujols, Gordon, and DeJesus would extend the Otters’ lead with a sac fly, a two-out RBI double, and a two-out RBI single, respectively.
Tyler Spring worked around two, two-out hits to pitch a scoreless eighth, before Reid Bukowski came on in the ninth to finish the game with a 1-2-3 inning in his Otters debut.
DeJesus finished the night going 4-5 with 3 RBIs. Gordon and Phillips also logged multi-hit performances, each driving in multiple runs.
The Otters conclude their three-game series against the Crushers with a doubleheader Thursday night. First pitch is at 5:05 p.m.
Thursday will be the first Thirsty Thursday of the 2021 season, featuring discounted drafts at 16 and 32 oz.
