In front of over 3,600 fans on E is for Everyone night at Bosse Field, the Evansville Otters slugged their way to a 10-6 victory over the Lake Erie Crushers on the strength of Riley Krane’s third grand slam of the season.
Along with the pomp and circumstance on E is for Everyone night and fireworks, the Frontier League and the Evansville Otters celebrated a milestone mark for Otters bench coach Boots Day. Day was recognized for his milestone of 55 seasons in professional baseball.
In the game, the Lake Erie Crushers scored first in the contest’s opening frame when Karl Ellison hit a two-out, two-run double off of Otters’ starter Ryan O’Reilly.
The Otters would flip the script in the bottom of the second, starting with an RBI double for J.R. Davis that scored Riley Krane from first. The Otters would take their first lead of the night when Michael Gangwish doubled with the bases loaded to put the Otters on top 4-2.
The Otters would add a couple more runs to their ledger in the bottom of the fifth, when Andretty Cordero and Jose Pujols combined for back-to-back RBI singles to extend the Otters lead to 6-2.
In the top of the sixth, Joe Riley would replace Ryan O’Reilly after Connor Oliver doubled home a couple with one out in the inning. Riley would get the final two outs and enter the bottom half with the Otters ahead by two, 6-4.
In the bottom of the sixth, the Otters would load the bases for Riley Krane, who cracked his 14th home run of the season for a grand slam, his third of the year, to extend the Otters’ lead to 10-4.
In the top of the seventh, two runs would score off Riley when Javier Betancourt homered for a one-out solo shot and Isaac Benard collected an RBI base knock. The runs cemented the game’s final score of 10-6 as Riley got the final out of the inning.
Tyler Spring and Augie Gallardo tossed perfect eighth and ninth innings.
The win put the Otters a game and a half up on the Florence Y’alls in first place in the Frontier League’s West Division.
Ryan O’Reilly earned his fourth win of the season, while Dillon Larsen took the loss.
The Otters will look to take the series from Lake Erie Saturday at 6:35 p.m., and fans can follow a broadcast of the game on Frontier League LiveTV with a 6:20 p.m. pregame show.
