Evansville sent out Braden Scott for his ninth start and he didn’t disappoint. He started off strong by striking out the side in the first inning.
Offensively, the Otters exploded in the first at-bat, with a Dennis Pierce leadoff home run that gave Evansville an early lead. That is the second leadoff homer for Pierce this season. Keenan Taylor led off the second with a double, and eventually came around to score after back-to-back sacrifice fly outs, putting Evansville up 2-0.
Scott continued to impress, pitching through the first five innings hitless and facing the minimum. Florence finally managed a hit in the sixth, and parlayed some soft contact into holes to put up three runs in the sixth, giving them a 3-2 lead.
The Otters didn’t wait to respond, as JT Benson unloaded a long home run to lead off the sixth. Facing a new pitcher, LJ Jones earned a walk, and Taylor doubled for the second time in the game. With runners on second and third, Pavin Parks hit a long sacrifice fly and Logan Brown singled to score Taylor to give Evansville a 5-3 lead.
Scott came back out to pitch the seventh and worked a clean inning to finish his outing. He worked his fifth straight quality start pitching seven innings, allowing just three runs and striking out eight.
Nick McAuliffe was called on to pitch the eighth and faced the minimum, setting up Alex Valdez for the ninth. Valdez worked around some traffic but converted his fourth save after an incredible play off the bounce from Parks Bouck en route to a 5-4 Evansville victory.
Benson finished his night perfect from the plate, going 3-3 with a home run, double and a walk.
The Otters are back in action tomorrow night looking for a sweep of Florence with a 5:05 p.m. CT scheduled first pitch, with gates opening at 4:00 p.m.
