The Evansville Otters bent but never broke in a 9-6 win over the Normal Cornbelters on Wednesday afternoon.
Normal (21-21) brought the game’s tying run to the plate in the bottom of the ninth inning, but Otters closer Randy McCurry delivered his 11th save of the year to secure the win.
Evansville (23-18) surged to an early lead over the Cornbelters with seven runs in the first four innings.Â
In the second inning, a three run home run from Chris Riopedre against Cornbelters starter Edgar De La Rosa put the Otters on top early.
The home run marked back-to-back games for Riopedre with a long ball and was his fourth of the season.
In the third inning, the Otters would open up their lead.
Josh Allen took advantage of a Normal throwing error to score from second base to post the first run in the side.
Riopedre then delivered on his fourth RBI of the day to push Alejandro Segovia across the plate making it 5-0.
The four RBI for Riopedre marked a season high.
The Cornbelters got a run back in the bottom of the third.
 An RBI single from Justin Fletcher scored Aaron Dudley to make it 5-1 in favor of the Otters
Evansville answered back in the top of the fourth with two more runs.
A solo shot from Josh Allen extended the Otters lead once again.
An RBI single from John Schultz scored Dane Phillips to make it 7-1.Â
Normal wouldn’t go away quietly.
In the sixth inning, Normal added two runs on an RBI single from Aaron Dudley to score Craig Lepre and Yeixon Ruiz.
 Then again in the seventh inning, Normal would cut the deficit on a two RBI single from Santiago Chirino to make it 7-5.
Evansville responded with two runs in the top of the eighth inning.
Alejandro Segovia scored Allen on a sacrifice fly to left field, and Jeff Gardner followed up with an RBI on a groundout to score Phillips.
In the bottom of the ninth, the Cornbelters brought up their best hitter in Dudley with two runners on and a chance to tie the game.
Dudley did deliver a run on a groundout to make it 9-6, but that would be the last of the Cornbelters scoring.Â
Felix Baez recorded his first win since May 31.
 Baez went five innings surrendering seven hit but only allowing one run.
Baez also struck out eight batters to give him a share of the Frontier League lead in strikeouts at 67 with teammate Max Duval.
The victory also marked the longest game of the season stretching almost four hours with an official time of 3:54.
Evansville will return to Bosse Field for Edward Jones Night Friday at 6:35 p.m. The game will feature a postgame fireworks show and tickets are still available at evansvilleotters.com or by calling 812-435-8686.
The Evansville Otters are the 2006 and 2016 Frontier League champions. Group packages and single game tickets are now on sale. For more information, visit evansvilleotters.com or call 812-435-8686.
