Evansville sent Joan Gonzalez out for his second ever professional start and he worked a great game. He put himself ahead in counts and had three strikeouts through two innings.
The Otters jumped out in front first, taking advantage of some Grizzlies mistakes with Pavin Parks scoring on a wild pitch.
Gateway responded immediately with a run of their own in the third. They scored two more in the fourth on a two-run home run to jump out to a 3-1 lead. Gonzalez pitched six innings with five strikeouts en route to a quality start.
Ellis Schwartz and Dennis Pierce led off the fifth with back-to-back singles. Evansville took advantage of another Gateway error to narrow the deficit to 3-2. Parks grounded a two-strike pitch to score the tying runner to end the fifth even at 3-3.
After Gateway scored one in the top of the seventh, LJ Jones answered with a solo home run to tie the game at four. Both teams worked scoreless frames in the eighth and the ninth to send the game to extras. Nick McAuliffe made his 21st appearance and despite one base runner, nabbed three strikeouts in the eighth.
Alex Valdez, after working a scoreless ninth, pitched the 10th, but couldn’t keep Gateway off the board. The Grizzlies scored two in the top half to force Evansville into a tough extra innings scenario.
Keenan Taylor scored Graham Brown from third with a sacrifice fly and JJ Cruz kept the game alive with his second hit of the game, but Evansville couldn’t push across a second run and lost 6-5.
The Otters are still searching for their first win in July. Six of their July contests have been decided by one run and three of the games extended to extra innings.
Evansville is back in action tomorrow at Bosse Field for a Dog Days of Summer. Fans are encouraged to bring their dogs to the ballpark and get $2 hot dogs for the 5:05 p.m. CT game. Gates open at 4:00 p.m..
