The Evansville Otters dropped the first game of their three-game set with the Florence Y’alls Tuesday night, who were walk-off winners in front of the home crowd at Y’alls Ballpark in the bottom of the ninth.
After Edgar Martinez managed to get the first two outs of the ballgame, two-out singles from J.R. Davis and Riley Krane, followed by a walk to Elijah MacNamee, loaded the bases for Andretty Cordero. Cordero promptly lined a two-run single to right, giving the Otters a 2-0 lead.
Andrew Penner extended the Otters lead to three with an infield single to the right side that scored MacNamee from third.
The Y’alls answered for one run in the bottom of the first, when Axel Johnson homered to straightaway center leading off the Y’alls half of the ballgame.
Otters starter Polo Portela and Martinez traded scoreless frames until the bottom of the fifth, Trevor Craport continued his push for the Frontier League RBI-lead with a two-out, run-scoring single, which cut Evansville’s lead down to 3-2.
The Otters would add that run right back in the top of the sixth, when Bryce Denton singled home Cordero from second on a base hit to right center with one out. That put the Otters up 4-2.
The Y’alls would then tie the game for the first time in the bottom of the sixth, after Tyler Spring came on to relieve Polo Portela, who struck out the last batter he faced, with one out and the bases loaded. The first batter to face Spring reached on an error by the second baseman, bringing the Y’alls within one. Then, with the bases still loaded, a walk issued to Luis Pintor would tie the game at four.
Evansville scratched across another run in the top of the seventh to regain the lead, as J.R. Davis, who reached first on a strikeout-wild pitch before advancing to third on two more wild ones, scored on a base hit to right from MacNamee. The Otters then led 5-4.
Florence tied it up for the second consecutive inning in the bottom of the seventh, when Trevor Craport scored from third on a sacrifice fly to center with the bases loaded off Tyler Spring.
After the run-scoring out, Taylor Wright replaced Spring and got the only last batter in the inning to fly out to right.
The Otters were held scoreless in the eighth and ninth, while Wright worked around a leadoff single to strand the go-ahead run in the bottom of the eighth.
In the bottom of the ninth, the Y’alls loaded the bases off Wright with one out, for Connor Crane to win the ballgame on a walk-off blooper to right. Florence picked up the first game of the series by a 6-5 final.
Sean Hughes (4-0) earned the win, while Taylor Wright (0-3) took the loss.
Evansville will look to even the series Wednesday, July 14. Fans can follow along with an audio broadcast on the Evansville Otters YouTube channel, with first pitch scheduled for 5:31 p.m. CT.
