Sauget, Ill. – The Evansville Otters were an out away from victory in both games of Wednesday’s doubleheader but the Gateway Grizzlies walked off twice at Grizzlies ballpark.
Evansville’s magic number to make the Frontier League playoffs remains at one with four games to play in the regular season.
In game one, the Otters led 6-5 entering the seventh inning but a Clint Freeman two-run home run won the game for Gateway.
After three runs in the first inning for Gateway, Evansville exploded for five runs in the second inning capped by a Kona Quiggle grand slam.
Gateway tied the game with three runs in the second but the Otters scored the go-ahead run in the fourth. Noah Myers led off with a walk and Quiggle followed with a single to move Myers to third. A sacrifice fly scored Myers to make it 6-5 Evansville.
Parker Brahms was brilliant for the Otters out of the bullpen. He twirled 4.1 innings scoreless with five strikeouts retiring the first 12 batters he faced.
Gateway started the seventh with a leadoff walk and hit the walk off two run home run with two outs.
Game two provided its own theatrics with the Grizzlies winning the game on a walk-off single when down to their last strike in the sudden death tiebreaker.
Gateway scratched across a run in the first and one in the fourth before Dakota Phillips blasted a two-run homer over the high wall in left field to tie the game at two in the sixth inning.
The Grizzlies retook the lead 3-2 in the bottom half of the sixth on an RBI double.
Jeffrey Baez helped Evansville keep the game alive in the top of the seventh. Baez notched a pinch-hit single and advanced to second on a wild pitch. He then stole third and the Grizzlies’ catcher threw the ball into left field scoring Baez to tie the game.
Kevin Davis struck out the side in the seventh. Both teams brought runners to third base in the eighth but could not score with Davis striking out two more batters in the eighth for six strikeouts in 2.2 scoreless innings from the bullpen.
Gateway elected to hit in the sudden death tiebreaker in the ninth. A walk and two singles loaded the bases. The Otters were a strike away from victory but Andrew Penner lined one into center just out of the reach of an Otter for the walk-off Gateway win.
Kona Quiggle led Evansville at the plate all evening with four total hits over the two games and two runs.
Dakota Phillips extended his on-base streak to 20 games as part of a two hit night. Noah Myers scored a run in game one for his 83rd run of the season – tying him with Josh Allen in 2017 for the most in a single-season.
The Otters stole five bases over the course of the evening for 160 bags on the season, breaking the franchise single season record from 1997.
Evansville and Gateway play in the series finale on Thursday evening with a 6:45 PM CT first pitch from Grizzlies Ballpark.
