The Evansville Otters were edged out 3-1 in a pitchers’ duel to the Lake Erie Crushers on Saturday night, despite a strong start from Austin Gossmann.
The Otters took the first lead of the game in the bottom of the second when Dakota Phillips smacked a home run to right for his eleventh blast of the year.
Austin Gossmann had matched former big leaguer Ryan Feierabend nearly pitch-for-pitch until the top of the sixth inning, having limited the Crushers to three hits through his first five innings while striking out seven and walking none.
In the top of the sixth, however, after getting the first two outs, Austin Gossmann would run into trouble as Trevor Achenbach and Connor Oliver smoked back-to-back RBI triples to give the Crushers the lead. Bryan DeLaRosa capped off the scoring in the inning and the game with an RBI single, chasing Gossmann from the game.
Abraham Almonte relieved Gossman with two out and DeLaRosa at first, only to see Otters’ catcher Dakota Phillips throw out the Crushers’ backstop trying to steal second, ending the inning.
After a scoreless seventh from Almonte, Augie Gallardo would limit the Crushers to a hit, a walk, and no runs in the top of the eighth.
Taylor Wright worked around a leadoff single to retire the last three Crushers the home staff would face.
Despite getting the tying run to the plate in the bottom of the ninth, the Otters could not tie the game.
After limiting the Otters to just one run on two hits over seven innings of work, Ryan Feierabend earned his seventh win of the season, while Austin Gossmann took the loss.
The Otters will look to win a series rubber match with the Lake Erie Crushers Sunday at 12:35 p.m., and fans can follow a broadcast of the game on Frontier League LiveTV with a 12:20 p.m. pregame show.
