With an eight-inning, twelve-strikeout performance, Braden Scott propelled the Evansville Otters to a 5-2 victory over the Windy City ThunderBolts Wednesday.
Wednesday’s result evens the series at one game apiece.
The Otters took the first lead of the ballgame, but they had to wait until the fourth inning since southpaws Braden Scott and Miguel Ausua traded three scoreless innings to start the evening.
The Otters broke through for three runs in the fourth after back-to-back hits from Elijah MacNamee and J.R. Davis set up a walk to Riley Krane that would load the bases. Andretty Cordero lifted a ball to right that brought MacNamee in to score, giving the Otters a 1-0 lead.
In the next at-bat, Andy DeJesus would single home Davis from third, before a walk to Miles Gordon would load the bases again ahead of Cristopher Pujols, who also walked with two outs to drive in a run, after which the Otters led 3-0.
Windy City answered in their home half of the inning by loading the bases off of Scott for Jack Strunc to single home the T-Bolts’ lone runs of the ballgame with a two-out single to right.
After four, Evansville still led 3-2.
Then, for the next two innings, both clubs would go on another scoring hiatus, until MacNamee drove in the last two runs of the ballgame for the Otters with a two-out single that plated Pujols and Gordon from second and third.
Braden Scott would wrap up his night by retiring the ThunderBolts in order in the eighth, establishing two new season-high, single-game marks on the club by picking up twelve strikeouts and working through eight innings.
Logan Sawyer came on in the ninth inning to lock down his league-leading sixteenth save of the season, sending the Otters to a 5-2 victory, their 39th of the season.
Braden Scott earned his fifth win of the year, while Miguel Ausua took the loss.
The Otters remain three games ahead of the Florence Y’alls in first place in the Frontier League’s West Division.
The Otters will look to take the series rubber match Thursday night and be the first team to 40 wins in the Frontier League this season.
First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 p.m., and fans can listen to an audio broadcast of the game on the Otters’ YouTube channel with a 6:50 p.m. pregame show.
