The Evansville Otters came up on the wrong end of a 1-0 pitchers’ duel Tuesday night at Bosse Field against the Florence Y’alls.
Otters starter Austin Gossmann and Y’alls pitcher Kevin Hahn set the tone early by trading three perfect innings to start the ballgame. They would each put up scoreless frames through their first five innings.
Gossmann made his only costly mistake of the evening in the top of the sixth, when he gave up an opposite field home run to Y’alls designated hitter Joe Lytle.
Gossmann would pitch into the eighth inning, until he was relieved by Justin Lewis with one out and a runner aboard.
Lewis got the final two outs of the inning after issuing a walk and hitting a batter, keeping the Y’alls lead to one.
Samson Abernathy came on to work a tricky ninth, where two walks and an error loaded the bases with nobody out. Abernathy proceeded to get the next three outs and leave all three men stranded, thanks to a strikeout and two pop outs.
Unfortunately for the Otters, Andrew McDonald came on to throw a shut-down ninth in relief of Kevin Hahn, who threw eight scoreless while allowing only two hits.
The hard-throwing right hander McDonald struck out the side in the bottom of the ninth, earning his first save of the season and pushing the Y’alls to their 19th victory of the season.
Kevin Hahn (2-1) earned his second win of the year, while Gossmann (2-1) took the hard-luck loss.
The Otters will look to even the series Wednesday night. Fans can catch a broadcast of Wednesday night’s game on Frontier League LiveTV, with a 6:20 p.m. pregame show. First pitch is at 6:35 p.m.
Wednesday is Senior Connection Wednesday, where seniors 55 and older can get general admission tickets for only $2.
