The Evansville Otters broke out their brooms and swept their way into first place in the Frontier League’s West Division with a 10-6 victory over the Florence Y’alls Thursday night.
After Austin Gossmann stranded a runner in scoring position to put up a goose egg in the top of the first, Miles Gordon kicked off a 10-run performance with a leadoff triple in the Otters’ half of the opening inning.
Gary Mattis promptly singled Gordon home to give the Otters a 1-0 lead. Mattis reached second on a stolen base before advancing to third on a J.R. Davis fly ball to right.
Elijah MacNamee knocked in the second run of the first with a two-strike single to right that scored Mattis from third.
The Otters added four more in the third, as Andretty Cordero singled home Riley Krane, Elijah MacNamee scored on a wild pitch, Andy DeJesus drove in Cordero on a sacrifice fly, and Gordon tallied his second hit with a single that brought Michael Gangwish home to score.
After three, the Otters led 6-0.
Gossmann, who started for the Otters, blanked the Y’alls through his first four innings of work, before an unearned run scored in the bottom of the fifth. Evansville still led 6-1 after that inning
After twirling a 1-2-3 sixth, Gossman would encounter some trouble in the seventh.
With two aboard and none out, Samson Abernathy came on in relief. After a hit batsman and an RBI groundout, Abernathy would lose Axel Johnson to a base on balls that loaded the bases.
On came Tyler Spring to face Chad Sedio, a .330-plus hitter entering play, who gapped a bases clearing double that brought the Y’alls within one.
In the following at-bat, the Frontier League’s most productive hitter, Trevor Craport, doubled home Sedio to tie the game at six.
Unfazed by the lost lead, the Otters got to work quickly in the seventh. J.R. Davis reached first on a leadoff plunking before Riley Krane reached on a single.
Now facing Andrew McDonald, who relieved Grant Hockin out of the bullpen, Elijah MacNamee would watch Davis cross home on a wild pitch to give the Otters a 7-6 lead. MacNamee was hit by a pitch in the plate appearance, putting runners at first and third.
Andretty Cordero then singled home Krane to make it an 8-6 lead for the Otters.
During DeJesus’ subsequent at-bat, MacNamee would score on the second wild pitch in the inning, making the score 9-6. After DeJesus singled, Michael Gangwish would drive home the last run in the inning on a sac fly to left.
That at-bat pushed the score to its 10-6 final.
Tyler Spring would work a scoreless eighth before being relieved by Taylor Wright to begin the ninth.
Wright’s scoreless frame sent Evansville to a sweeping victory over the Y’alls and pushed them into sole possession of first place in the West Division with the best record in the Frontier League.
The Otters will look to keep up their winning ways when they battle their West Division rivals, the Southern Illinois Miners, Friday in the continuation of their six-game, seven-day homestand.
