Falling behind early to the Crushers (36-20), the Otters (21-35) were held to four hits tonight and struggled to ignite the offense.
Lake Erie plated two men in the third frame to open the scoring.
Evansville’s run came in the fifth. Randy Bednar led off with a single and advanced on a failed pick-off attempt to second. He was in a run down and forced a bad throw to get him into scoring position. After moving to third on a wild pitch, Bednar was brought home on a sacrifice fly from Alec Olund.
In the home fifth, Lake Erie got a run back on a homer to right field.
Braden Scott (1-8) was the losing pitcher after throwing in five innings, allowing all runs on seven hits with six strikeouts on two walks. The relievers were terrific, as Jon Beymer tossed two scoreless innings followed by Grif Hughes keeping the Crushers off the board in the eighth.
In a bullpen day for Lake Erie, Garrett Coe (1-0) took the win after pitching in the fourth and fifth innings, giving up one unearned run.
Alex Adams led the Otters’ bats, garnering half of the team hits in a two-for-three night.
With the final game before the All-Star break tomorrow, Evansville will look to avoid the sweep against the Crushers. The first pitch is scheduled for 1:05 pm CT. Coverage is available on the Otters Digital Network and FloBaseball.
