Evansville tied a season high of five home runs, worked a year-best nine walks and totaled 14 hits to even up the series at a game apiece.
Jeffrey Baez led the Otters with two home runs for his fourth multi-homer game of the season. He has 12 home runs on the season with five of them against the ValleyCats.
Aaron Beck hit his first pro home run, Noah Myers blasted his ninth homer on the season and George Callil topped off the power surge with a two-run shot for his third home run of the year.
Baez started the scoring with a 375 foot two-run homer in the first. Kona Quiggle hit a two-RBI double in the second to extend the lead to 4-0.
Tri-City answered with a two-run home run in the second but Baez and Beck’s solo blasts in the fifth brought the lead back to four runs.
Myers hit his solo home run in the sixth and Callil hit his two-run homer in the seventh. Quiggle topped the scoring with another RBI double in the seventh inning.
The ValleyCats plated five runs over the final five innings but never worked the lead under two runs.
On the mound, Justin Watland earned his fourth win of the season. The Otters’ starter worked five innings, allowing three runs on seven hits with three strikeouts.
All nine Otters’ batters reached base. Jomar Reyes and Beck both mounted three-hit days. The Evansville native Beck worked his way on base all five times at the plate and scored three runs.
The Otters play for the series against the ValleyCats on Sunday with the series finale slated for a 4:00 PM CT first pitch. Fans can listen to the action on the Otters Digital Network with the broadcast simulcast on FloSports.
All home and road Otters games this season are televised on FloSports with audio-only coverage available for free on the Evansville Otters YouTube page.
