EVANSVILLE, Ind. – History was made on Friday night as the Evansville Otters played in their first all-time meeting against the New England Knockouts at Bosse Field in an 11-6 loss.
Errors plagued the Otters (19-30) early, allowing four of the first five Knockouts (14-34) runs to score unearned. After their early lead, New England never trailed.
Three runs came in to score for New England in the second inning.
Evansville answered in the bottom of the frame with a solo home run from Dakota Phillips in his first at-bat back at Bosse Field, blasting the ball over the right-center wall to make it 3-1.
The Knockouts would then go on to score eight unanswered runs, primarily from two three-run innings in the sixth and eighth. The score was 11-1.
Late in the game, the Evansville offense got hot.
They plated three runs on RBI hits from Phillips and Mason White before another scored on a fielder’s choice RBI from David Mendham in the eighth.
In the ninth, Delvin Zinn smoked his first homer of the year to left field to make it an 11-5 game. Randy Bednar also picked up an RBI base hit during the frame, but the comeback was not enough and the scoring was finalized.
Phillips, Mendham and White led the offense with two hits each. The Otters had 11 base hits to the Knockouts’ eight. Gary Mattis scored twice in his return to Evansville.
Terance Marin (0-2) took the loss after pitching in four innings as the starter. Despite allowing just one earned run, he left the game in a 5-1 hole. Neil Uskali (1-1) earned the win.
The Otters will look to even the series tomorrow against the Knockouts, with a first pitch of 6:35 p.m. CT. Coverage is available on the Otters Digital Network and FloBaseball.
