Evansville played from behind for the third time this series. Ryan Wiltse made his fourth start and after a clean first inning, he allowed a pair of home runs and three total runs in the second. After another run in the fourth, the Titans jumped out in front 4-0.
The Otters responded in the top of the fifth as Dennis Pierce hit his fourth home run of the week to cut the lead to 4-2. Pierce is the first Otter with double digit home runs this season.
Not to be outdone, Ottawa had a response of their own, with back-to-back home runs for the second time in the game to extend their lead to 7-2. Wiltse exited the game in the fifth after surrendering seven runs and striking out seven.
Garret Simpson made his second appearance since moving to the bullpen and finished the fifth inning and pitched a clean sixth.
Evansville added a run in the sixth on a Keenan Taylor two-out single to cut the lead to 7-3.
After Colin Murphy worked a clean seventh, Evansville stuck in the eighth. Back-to-back hits from Pavin Parks and Graham Brown led off the inning with runners at second and third with no one out. After a Logan Brown sacrifice fly and Taylor got his second hit of the game, Ellis Schwartz muscled a ball over the center fielder’s head for his second triple of the series, bringing Evansville to within one.
Nick McAuliffe entered to pitch the bottom of the eighth, but a walk and a couple of well-placed hits loaded the bases with no one out. A defensive mistake from Evansville allowed two to score, leading to a big inning for the Titans.
The Otters got a runner on in the ninth but couldn’t bring any home and fell 11-6. Evansville is still searching for their first road series win this season.
The Otters travel back to Evansville to host the Lake Erie Crushers beginning with a Fifth Third Bank $2 Tuesday. Teams will resume a game that was suspended at the end of the 9th inning on May 25th, tied at 3-3 at 5:05 p.m. CT. The originally scheduled game will take place at 6:35 p.m. CT or 35 minutes following the conclusion of the suspended game (only if suspended game ends past 6:00 p.m.). Gates open at 4:00 p.m.
