Evansville, Ind. – The Evansville Otters fell to the Windy City Thunderbolts in an eleventh-inning sudden-death tiebreaker 5-4 Wednesday night at Bosse Field.
In the second year of the new Frontier League extra innings rule, the Otters elected to pitch for three outs to try to win the game. The ThunderBolts started with a runner at first per the rules. A ThunderBolts base hit put runners on first and third with nobody out. The Otters would get a groundout and strikeout while intentionally walking a batter to lead to a winner-take-all at-bat.
With two outs and the bases loaded, Junior Martina lined a base hit up the middle to get the unique walk-off road win at Bosse Field.
Wednesday’s game was a back-and-forth affair before the sudden death tiebreaker. The Otters tied it in the eighth on a Justin Felix two out base hit.
The walk-off run reached scoring position in the bottom of the ninth but the Otters could not bring him home.
Bryan Rosario was a force on the basepaths again Wednesday with four stolen bases, tied for second most in a game in franchise history. He’s stolen 7 bases in the series and leads the Frontier League with 20 stolen bases.
The Otters scored first for the 15th consecutive game with two runs in the first inning. Jeffrey Baez had the key double in the opening frame. Kelvin Melean added another run in the fourth on a RBI knock.
Windy City would fight back with one run apiece in the fifth and sixth before taking the lead with two runs in the seventh.
Otters’ starter Justin Watland was an out shy of a quality outing. The righty threw five and two-thirds allowing just four hits and one earned run.
Jake Polancic worked around a runner in scoring position in the ninth and the tenth inning placed runner to give Evansville two chances to walk off.
Noah Myers led the Otters at the plate with two hits. The loss ends the Otters seven-game home winning streak.
Evansville faces Windy City on Thursday evening for a rubber match at Bosse Field. Thursday is YMCA night and Budweiser Thirsty Thursday is with discounted drafts and domestic cans. The first pitch is slated for 6:35 PM CT.
All Otters games this season are televised on FloSports with audio-only coverage available for free on the Evansville Otters YouTube page.
The Evansville Otters are the 2006 and 2016 Frontier League champions.
The Otters play all home games at historic Bosse Field, located at 23 Don Mattingly Way in Evansville, Ind. Stay up-to-date with the Evansville Otters by visiting evansvilleotters.com, or follow the Otters on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
