The Evansville Otters earned a doubleheader split Sunday against the Schaumburg Boomers, giving Evansville a series split during the weekend trip to northern Illinois.
The Otters lost game one Sunday by a score of 2-1 but were 9-6 winners in game two.
The doubleheader also concluded a stretch of seven games in five days for the Otters. They move to 8-3 on the young season.
The first game was a bona fide pitchers’ duel, as Otters lefty Marty Anderson and Boomers starter Ryan Middendorf threw six and 5.2 scoreless innings, respectively.
Anderson allowed only three hits on the night. He also struck out two batters.
Dakota Phillips stepped to the plate in a scoreless game in the top of the seventh inning, facing Boomers reliever Darrell Thompson, when he took the first pitch he saw out to left-center for a tie-breaking solo home run.
The Boomers brought the go-ahead run to plate in the bottom half, however, and Nick Oddo launched a walk-off, two-run homer to right field off of Otters closer Logan Sawyer, who took the loss.
Thompson earned the win.
Game two started off on rocky footing for the Otters, as Quincy Nieporte singled home Alec Craig to take a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning for Schaumburg.
Otters starter Anthony Arias — pitching on three days rest — wound up limiting the damage by stranding the bases loaded.
Then, in the top of the second, Otters second baseman J.R. Davis homered off Boomers starter Stephen Chamblee to tie the game at one.
Schaumburg added two more in the second, before the Otters unleashed a five-run third to take a 6-3 lead that would hold for the remainder of the ballgame.
Andy DeJesus and Elijah MacNamee kicked off the rally with a pair of one-out singles, before Riley Krane doubled home a run. Bryce Denton tied the game with a base hit over the third baseman Luke Becker’s head. Phillips notched his second go-ahead RBI of the day by following Denton’s at-bat with a double, putting the Otters up 3-2. Davis capped the scoring with an RBI single.
Tyler Spring would come on to relieve Arias for the final out of the third inning. Spring proceeded to retire all ten batters he faced out of the bullpen, pitching 3.1 perfect innings. He also struck out two.
The Otters added two more runs in the top of the sixth thanks to a two-run double from Riley Krane.
Evansville also scored a run in the top of the seventh on a two-out, RBI-double from Miles Gordon.
Abraham Almonte finished the game out of the bullpen, allowing two runs on three hits.
Spring earned the win, his second of the season in relief.
Every Otter in the starting lineup recorded a base hit in the seven-inning game.
Josh Henderson also hit the Otters’ second triple of the season.
Davis went 4-4, with two runs driven in. DeJesus, Krane, and MacNamee also had multi-hit performances. MacNamee went 2-4 in game one, while collecting a total of eight hits in 15 at-bats.
After an off-day, the Otters will continue their seven-game road trip Tuesday at Florence. First pitch will be at 5:30 p.m. CT.
