EVANSVILLE, Ind. – The Evansville Otters dropped the final home game of 2024 to the Gateway Grizzlies on Sunday afternoon 7-3 at Bosse Field.
The Grizzlies (56-33) opened the scoring in the first inning with an unearned run. Answering in the home half of the frame, the Otters (41-50) dropped one on the board with a Delvin Zinn sacrifice fly to center field.
Taking the final lead of the game, Gateway pushed back ahead in the fourth innings with one run, before tacking on four more in the fifth and another run in the sixth.
Evansville answered in the seventh frame. Mendham drew a walk with two outs and two batters later, Pavin Parks hit an RBI single to center.
Moving to the ninth, the Otters finalized the scoring with a Mendham double. He scored again with a Giovanni DiGiacomo fielder’s choice RBI.
Gateway racked up a baker’s dozen hits to Evansville’s eight. Mendham went 3-for-3 at the dish, reaching base in all five plate appearances with two walks.
With the loss, Zach Smith (7-7) gave up six runs on seven hits. While he struck out seven, too much damage came in the fifth without recording an out before he was pulled. Collin Sullivan (9-5) took the win in five innings of one-run ball.
While the home season is over, the Otters still have five more games to go. The club has tomorrow off before opening a new series in Chicago against the Schaumburg Boomers on Tuesday. The first pitch is at 6:30 pm. CT. Coverage is available on the Otters Digital Network and FloBaseball.
