With two games remaining, the Otters will have an opportunity to surpass the franchise’s single season wins mark that was previously set in 2014.
With the win, the Otters also eliminated the Miners from postseason contention, clinching a postseason berth for the River City Rascals.
Otters starting pitcher Tyler Beardsley set the tone from the mound on Friday, outdueling the Frontier League’s Pitcher of the Year in the Miners’ Chase Cunningham.
Evansville earned an early tally against Cunningham in the first inning. Keith Grieshaber singled and scored on Ryan Long’s RBI double to give the Otters a 1-0 lead.
Beardsley would cruise through the first five innings with one run of support behind him, allowing only two hits and retiring seven batters in a row from the third to the fifth innings.
The Otters tacked on their second run on a two-out RBI double from Elijah MacNamee to score David Cronin, extending the Otters’ lead to two.
Southern Illinois’ Kirvin Moesquit led off the bottom of the sixth inning reaching third base an Otters’ error. Mosequit would come around to score on a sac fly from Yeltsin Gudino to cut the Otters’ lead in half.
In the top of the seventh, Rob Calabrese led off with a huge solo home run, recording his 10th homer of the season, putting the Otters’ advantage back to two at 3-1.
With two outs in the seventh, Cunningham was pulled, going 6.2 innings, allowing three runs on eight hits with a walk and four strikeouts. He earned the loss, dropping his record to 10-5. He finishes with the most innings pitched, wins, and strikeouts in the Frontier League.
Beardsley pitched into the eighth, and after a 13-pitch walk to Kirvin Moesquit, Beardsley was pulled with two outs. He finished with 7.2 innings pitched, allowing only three hits and an unearned run with five strikeouts. He earned his ninth win of the season, improving to 9-5.
Drew Beyer came on in relief and pitched 1.1 scoreless innings to earn his first save of the season.
The Otters’ magic number to clinch a West Division title is at one. A win by the Otters or a Florence Freedom loss on Saturday would clinch the division and the top spot for the Otters as Evansville owns the tiebreaker over Florence, and the Freedom do not play on Sunday.
The Otters are seeking to win their first Frontier League division title since 1999.
First pitch Saturday is at 6:05 p.m. CT from Rent One Park in Marion, Ill.
