The Evansville Otters clinched a wild card berth in the 2017 Frontier League Playoffs despite an 11-2 loss to the Gateway Grizzlies on Saturday night.
With Windy City losing to Schaumburg 4-1, the Otters were guaranteed a spot in the postseason. With an Evansville win tomorrow and a Washington Wild Things loss, the Otters can clinch the three seed in the playoffs.Â
Evansville (52-43) had trouble in both pitching and offense in the loss to the Grizzlies.Â
Gateway (31-64) used seven runs in the first two innings to jump out to an early lead.Â
In the bottom of the first inning, Gateway poured it on. Two three-run home runs from Brent Gillespie and Brent Sakurai made it a quick 6-0 lead.Â
Then in the bottom of the second inning, Blake Brown added a third home run to make it 7-0 in favor of Gateway.
Evansville got their only two runs of the night on a two-RBI ground rule double from Kolten Yamaguchi in the top of the fourth inning. Both Alejandro Segovia and John Schultz scored on the play. Â
Gateway added on to their lead later in the game. In the bottom of the sixth inning, Brown hit an RBI double to score Brian Lees. With the bases loaded twice, both Dan Holst and Sakurai added RBIs with walks. A Jack Hranec RBI single finished the scoring to make it 11-2.
Shane Weedman struggeled for a second straight outing. Weedman went just 1 and 1/3 walking four batters, giving up four hits, and hitting one as well. Â
Otters pitching as a whole walked 10 in the losing effort while striking out 10.
 The Otters and Grizzlies will finish off the regular season tomorrow. First pitch is set for 6:05 p.m. at GCS Ballpark.
