The Evansville Otters captured a 6-2 win over the Windy City ThunderBolts Tuesday, coming on a night where the club homered twice, and Josh Allen made his return to the lineup in an Otters uniform.
Most of the runs in the game were scored in the second inning.
Windy City scored first on a towering, two-run home run by Rob Weissheier that went over the brick wall into the parking lot at Bosse Field.
Evansville answered quickly in the home half of the second, as Jeffrey Baez blasted a moonshot of his own to lead off the inning.
Later in the inning, the Otters added two more on an RBI groundout and a sac fly, giving the Otters a 3-2 lead.
Dakota Phillips’ sac fly made it 4-2 Evansville in the bottom of the third.
The middle innings went quietly, although Josh Allen recorded a single in the fifth for his first hit back in an Otters uniform, and first since 2017.
In the bottom of the seventh, Evansville received another leadoff home run off the bat of Andy DeJesus.
The Otters tacked on an insurance run in the bottom of the eighth when Dakota Phillips singled home Baez to make it 6-2 Evansville, which held as the final score.
Offensively, Baez led the way with three hits, Phillips added two hits and two RBIs, and DeJesus finished with two RBIs as well.
On the mound, Polo Portela gave a solid effort for the Otters, getting the win after pitching seven innings with four strikeouts. Tyler Spring followed Portela with three strikeouts and earned the two-inning save.
Tyler Thornton took the loss for Windy City, allowing five runs in 6.2 innings.
On Tuesday, the Florence Y’alls were idle with an extra day off, so Evansville’s win extended the Otters’ Frontier League West Division lead to two games.
The Otters and ThunderBolts will square off once again Wednesday at 6:35 p.m., as Windy City’s left-hander Kenny Mathews will go up against Evansville’s right-hander Ryan O’Reilly. Gates open at 5:30 p.m.
