The Evansville Otters moved themselves to just one win away from clinching a playoff berth with a 10-3 win over the Gateway Grizzlies on Friday night.
Evansville (52-42) used a six-RBI night from Jeff Gardner en route to the crucial victory.
Gateway (30-64) posted 12 hits, but committed three errors in the loss.
Jeff Gardner tied the single-season franchise record for home runs with a three-run blast in the sixth inning for his 23rd of the year. Gardner’s home run tied Shane Houck who set the record in 2014.
Ryan Etsell dominated on the mound in his fifth start of the year. The Otters ace has yet to allow more than two earned runs in a start. Etsell struck out three in the outing and gave up just eight hits in his second win of the year.
The Otters got off to a hot start scoring five runs in the first two innings.
In the first inning, Gardner posted his first RBI on a single to score Josh Allen. Then in the second inning, Chris Riopedre drove in Brandon Soat on a single, and Zach Welz scored on an error. Dane Phillips added an RBI single to score Riopedre and Gardner hit a sacrifice fly to score Allen for a second time.
Gateway put their first run on the board in the bottom of the third when Blake Brown hit a solo home run to make it 5-1.
Evansville got the run back in the top of the fourth inning. An RBI single from Jeff Gardner scored Allen for a third time to make it 6-1.
In the bottom of the fifth inning, Gateway added their second home run of the evening with a solo shot from Terry McClure to cut the lead to four.
However, Jeff Gardner responded with his three-run home run over the left centerfield wall to add on three more RBI and score Allen and Phillips. Allen finished with four runs scored on the game.
Evansville added on one more run in the eighth with Phillips tallying his 14th home run of the year to deep right field.
Gateway added one final run in the bottom of the ninth on an RBI single from Brent Sakurai to score Cody Livesay to make it 10-3.
Connor Little also added on two solid innings of relief for Evansville giving up just one hit and striking out two. Brandon Cook finished the game pitching the ninth inning allowing three hits and one run.
Alex Kisena gave up 11 hits and nine earned runs in the loss for Gateway.
The Otters and Grizzlies return to action tomorrow. With an Otters win or a Windy City loss, the Otters will clinch a 2017 playoff berth.
First pitch is set for 7:05 p.m. at GCS Ballpark.
Fans can listen on 91.5 WUEV with Lucas Corley providing play-by-play coverage.
Tickets for August home games are still available by going to evansvilleotters.com or calling 812-435-8686.
