 In his professional debut, Gary Mattis clubbed a pair of doubles and set the table for Ryan O’Reilly’s dominant performance in the Evansville Otters’ 4-1 win over the Florence Y’alls.
The Otters rookies led the charge in a matchup between the two best teams in the Frontier League’s West Division.
The Otters entered the hit column in the bottom of the first when J.R. Davis tripled down the right field line with two outs in the inning. Kevin Hahn managed to work himself out of the early jam by inducing a pop up.
Ryan O’Reilly went one time through the order and retired the first nine men he faced, before his club gave him the lead in the latter part of the third.
Andrew Penner led off the inning with a line drive base hit to right on an 0-2 pitch for the Otters’ third hit of the game. Gary Mattis, in his first professional at-bat, followed the Penner single with a double off the Deaconess billboard in right-center field, putting runners at second and third with nobody out.
Miles Gordon and Elijah MacNamee would deliver with two productive at-bats of their own. Gordon scored Penner from third on a ground ball to the right side, and MacNamee drove home Mattis with a sacrifice fly to center. Evansville led 2-0 at the end of three.
Ryan O’Reilly gave up his first baserunner with two out in the top of the fourth on a double to Chad Sedio. Beyond that, the only other Y’all to reach through the first seven did so on a leadoff walk in the sixth.
Gary Mattis continued to amaze in his debut performance when he came to the plate with one out in the bottom of the fifth, following Andrew Penner’s second hit of the day. In his second professional at-bat, Mattis smoked a line drive over the head of the shortstop Andres Rios that went to the wall for his second double of the day.
Mattis’ double would set up another two-run inning, as Penner scored from third on a Miles Gordon sac fly to left, before Gary Mattis scored on a passed ball after stealing third without a throw. After five innings of play, the Otters led 4-0.
Ryan O’Reilly got the first two outs of the eighth after surrendering a leadoff homer to Jordan Brower, the only run of the ballgame for the Y’alls.
O’Reilly was lifted when Connor Crane doubled for the third hit off O’Reilly. Taylor Wright came in to face Axel Johnson with Crane in scoring position and two out. On a full count pitch, Wright struck out Johnson to end the threat.
Logan Sawyer would pick up his 13th save of the season by pitching a scoreless ninth, sending the Otters to a 4-1 finish.
O’Reilly earned his second win of the season, while Kevin Hahn, who started for the Y’alls picked up a complete game tossing eight innings, took the loss.
The Otters, now a game-and-a-half back of the Y’alls, will look to inch closer to first place in the West Division with a win Wednesday night. First pitch between the Otters and Florence Y’alls on a Senior Connection Wednesday is scheduled for 6:35 p.m.
Wednesday night’s game will be broadcast on Frontier League LiveTV, with a 6:20 p.m. pregame show.
