In a game where runs were tough to come by, the Evansville Otters were outscored by one Saturday as the Schaumburg Boomers won 2-1 in the tenth inning.
With a runner on second in the bottom of the tenth, Otters pitcher Matt Rowland threw a wild pitch to catcher Rob Calabrese that rolled to the backstop behind home plate. The wild pitch advanced Schaumburg’s Clint Hardy to third.
Hardy was ready to go home, but slipped down the third base line. Evansville’s Ryan Long signaled to Calabrese to throw back behind Hardy to attempt to tag him out.
When Calabrese released the ball from his glove, it dropped in front of the Otters dugout on the third base side, which allowed Hardy to score the game winning run for the Boomers.
The Otters jumped onto the scoreboard first with an early run in the first inning, coming on a sac-fly from Carlos Castro to score David Cronin.
The Otters offense would be held in check the rest of the way, scoring one run on three hits.
Evansville would hold a 1-0 lead through five innings, until running into some trouble in the sixth.
Schaumburg’s Dylan Jones led off the inning with a double. Jack Parenty knocked him in on a single to tie the game at one.
Schaumburg starter Erik Martinez would pitch six complete innings, allowing one run on two hits.
The top of the seventh was a golden opportunity for the Otters to break the game open in their favor.
Dakota Phillips led off with a walk, Calabrese doubled to advance Phillips to third, and Hunter Cullen reached first on an error by Boomers shortstop Alex Polston, to load the bases with no outs.
Boomers pitcher Darrell Thompson would clean up the mess with back-to-back strikeouts of Jack Meggs and J.J. Gould, and a Cronin flyout to left field to end the Evansville threat.
Otters starter Jake Welch was pulled after issuing back-to-back walks to start the bottom of the eighth. He allowed one run on six hits in seven complete innings.
After an intentional walk to Parenty to load the bases with one out, newly acquired reliever Chris Cepeda was able to get the Otters out of the jam with a flyout and a groundout.
Rowland entered in the ninth with the bases loaded and two outs and was able to retire Luis Gonzalez on a flyout to left field, advancing the game to the tenth where Schaumburg walked off.
