EVANSVILLE, Ind. – The Evansville Otters (11-13) beat the Washington Wild Things (13-11) 6-3 on Saturday night in a divisional contest.
The Otters had their ace on the bump today in Braden Scott, who was dealing in the first two frames. He began his outing striking out the side in the first and worked through a hit-by-pitch to throw a scoreless second.
In the third, Washington was able to take a 1-0 lead by the time the Otters came to bat.
A leadoff walk to Ellis Schwartz got the offense going for Evansville in the home half of the third. With Schwartz on first, LJ Jones lasered a ball into left center field to score Schwartz from first. The next batter up, Keenan Taylor, then sent a line drive over the left field wall for his fourth home run of the season. This gave the Otters a 3-1 lead at the end of the third.
With a good offensive inning behind him, Scott pitched a scoreless fourth to quickly get the bats up and going. Raymond Gil and Justin Felix would reach to begin the inning and be bunted over by Alain Camou. With two runners in scoring position, Schwartz hit a sacrifice fly to center to bring in another run. Pavin Parks would later single home another run. JJ Cruz continued the hit parade with an RBI single of his own.
The Otters carried a 6-1 lead into the top of the fifth. Scott threw two more innings to end his day with a great line. He went six innings, struck out six and gave up just one run. The bullpen did their job in the seventh and held the lead where it was.
The Wild Things would tack on two in the eighth to make it closer at 6-3. Alex Valdez would shut them down though. He had a clutch outing where he would end the game with a strikeout while the bases were loaded for Washington.
In total, the Evansville pitching staff was able to strand 13 total base runners for Washington.
The Otters are back at it tomorrow at 5:05 PM CT for Dog Days of Summer! Fans with ticket stubs from Saturday night’s win can bring the stub to Sunday’s game for free admission.
All games can be heard on 96.9 WYIR and the Otters Digital Network and can be viewed live on the HomeTeam Network.