The Evansville Otters rallied to win their fourth extra-innings victory of the season Tuesday, as Elijah MacNamee walked-it-off in the bottom of the tenth inning against the Gateway Grizzlies to give the Otters a 3-2 win.
For four innings, Polo Portela and Jordan Barrett traded scoreless frames in a pitcher’s duel at Bosse Field. That was until Grizzlies catcher Chase Vallot hit a two-run homer with two outs in the top of the fifth inning to give the Grizzlies a two-run lead.
The Otters answered right back, following a two-out walk to Miles Gordon and a subsequent double from Andy DeJesus, J.R. Davis tied the game with a two-run base knock to centerfield.
Polo Portela pitched a scoreless sixth, logging a quality start, before being relieved in the seventh by Tyler Spring. Spring pitched a scoreless inning, while striking out two and walking one.
Taylor Wright took over matters in the top of the eighth. He pitched two innings, and retired all six batters he faced while punching out two.
After the Otters failed to score in the bottom of the ninth, Evansville and Gateway went to extras under the international tie-breaker rule. Otters closer Logan Sawyer came on to try and keep the game tied.
On a fly ball to centerfield, automatic runner Abdiel Diaz advanced to third with only one out. Sawyer managed to induce a ground ball to third baseman Cristopher Pujols from Vallot, keeping the go-ahead run at third.
Sawyer got a ground ball to short to get out of the inning with the tied game still intact.
Elijah MacNamee strolled to the plate to leadoff the bottom of the tenth with Riley Krane at second base. MacNamee crushed a ball into the left-centerfield gap, over the head of the left fielder Axel Johnson, to win the ballgame in walk-off fashion.
Logan Sawyer earned the win, while the loss went to Justin Watts.
The Otters and Grizzlies will meet again Wednesday night in the second game of the series from Bosse Field. First pitch will be at 6:35 p.m, with a 6:20 p.m. pregame show on Frontier League LiveTV.
Wednesday’s game will be a Senior Connection Wednesday, where seniors 55 and older can purchase a general admission ticket for only $2.
