EVANSVILLE, Ind. – The Evansville Otters will have more returning experience in 2022, as pitcher Polo Portela, pitcher Abraham Almonte, and infielder J.R. Davis will be returning this season.

Portela, from Sacramento, Calif., enters his second season with the Otters. In 2021, he went 10-3 with a 3.69 ERA and 93 strikeouts in 19 starts and 109.2 innings pitched. His 10 wins last season matched an Otters single season record.

While at Cumberland University in 2019, Portela went 6-2 in 13 starts, logging a 4.43 ERA. He also struck out 83 batters in 83.1 innings pitched, and he recorded three complete games.

Almonte, from Danbury, Conn., was 2-0 with a 5.82 ERA and 18 strikeouts in 16 appearances and 17 innings pitched in his second season with Evansville. He also had one save in 2021.

In 2019 with the Otters, Almonte recorded 13 strikeouts and a 4.38 ERA in 12.1 innings pitched and 14 appearances, missing the middle part of the season due to injury.

Before arriving in Evansville, Almonte spent two years in the Arizona Diamondbacks organization after he was drafted by the Diamondbacks in the 26th round of the 2017 MLB June Draft.

Davis, a Vallejo, Calif. Native, batted .316 with 54 runs, 18 doubles, a triple, eight home runs, 56 RBIs, and four stolen bases in 91 games played last season, his first with the Otters and second in the Frontier League. He previously played for the Washington Wild Things before coming to Evansville.

Davis was named a 2021 Frontier League Postseason All-Star, and his 108 hits were fourth-best in franchise single season history.

In affiliated baseball, Davis played in 2019 for the Seattle Mariners organization after spending three seasons in the St. Louis Cardinals organization. He was drafted in 2016 by the St. Louis Cardinals in the MLB June Draft.

Portela, Almonte, and Davis are three out of 17 players anticipated to return to Evansville at this time in the summer. The Otters finished second in the West Division last season, finishing with the record of 57 wins and 39 losses. The Otters will strive to win their third Frontier League championship in franchise history this upcoming season with returning experience and several newcomers as well.

Aces head to Terre Haute for tournament

 EVANSVILLE, Ind. – Next up for the University of Evansville women’s golf team is a trip north on Route 41 for the Indiana State Invitational.

Country Club of Terre Haute will be the host course with 18 holes being played on Sunday with a final round slated for Monday.  Play gets under way with a shotgun start on Sunday at 11 a.m. ET with the final 18 beginning with a shotgun start at 10 a.m. ET.

Par is set for 72 and the yardage will be 6,041.  Evansville is one of four current Missouri Valley Conference programs in the event, joining Indiana State, Northern Iowa and Valparaiso.  The rest of the field includes Chicago State, Eastern Illinois, Green Bay, Rose-Hulman and future MVC member UIC.

UE completed the Golfweek/Any Given Tuesday Intercollegiate on Wednesday in Pawley’s Island, S.C.  Leading the Purple Aces in the final standings was Magdalena Borisova.  The freshman carded a 6-over 78 in round three to finish in a tie for 41^st.  Her three scores came in at 77-77-78 as she finished with a 232.  Alyssa McMinn and Allison Enchelmayer each wrapped up the tournament with rounds of 78.  McMinn registered four birdies in her round while Enchelmayer had a pair.  Both finished the event with total scores of 240, tying for 68^th.

Schedule changed due to weather

 EVANSVILLE, Ind. – With two Missouri Valley Conference series under their belts, the University of Evansville softball team opens the month of April with a road series at Loyola.  Sunday’s doubleheader kicks the weekend off at noon with Monday’s finale set for a 12 p.m. start; all three games will be on ESPN3.

 Last Time Out

– Following a pair of losses to Northern Iowa in the Saturday doubleheader, the Purple Aces rebounded to win Sunday’s finale by a 6-3 final in nine innings

– Alyssa Barela was the hero for UE, hitting the game-winning 3-run walk-off home run to seal the win

– Izzy Vetter threw the complete nine innings while Alexa Davis contributed two doubles, two runs and a walk in the winning effort

– The opening two weeks of conference play have provided multiple positives for UE

– After dropping the conference opener to Drake, its 10th loss in a row to the Bulldogs, UE rebounded to sweep a Sunday doubleheader to clinch the series

– Facing Northern Iowa in week two of league action, Evansville fell in both ends of the Saturday doubleheader before taking a 6-3 9-inning win on Sunday

– The victory in the series finale ended a 7-game skid versus UNI

– Evansville went 0-6 against the Iowa schools in 2021 but earned a respectable 3-3 split in 2022

Walk-Off

– With one out and two runners on in the bottom of the 9th on Sunday, Alyssa Barela belted a 3-run walk-off home run to give the Aces a 6-3 win over UNI

– It was the second homer of the season for Barela and the 8th of her career

– In her last three games, Barela has gone 3-for-8 while her three RBI against the Panthers marked her season high

– She entered the March 4 home opener with four hits in her first 30 at-bats of the season before rebounding to hit .444 in the opening four home contests

Heating Up

– Jessica Fehr continues to swing a hot bat, adding three hits in six at-bats to help the Aces sweep the doubleheader versus Drake

– She recorded a hit in two of the three games versus UNI

– Picking up a hit in 13 of her last 16 games, Fehr leads UE and ranks 10th in the MVC with a .345 average

– She is second in the MVC with 18 walks while ranking fourth with 20 runs scored – over the last 18 games, she has scored 15 runs

Clutch Performances

– In Sunday’s series finale against UNI, Alexa Davis was 2-3 with two doubles, two runs scored along with a walk and steal to help the Aces take a 6-3 win

– Her season average is back at .300 with her picking up a hit in four of her last 11 at-bats

– Mired in a 1-for-19 slump at the plate at the time, Davis broke through recording two hits in five at-bats in the doubleheader sweep over Drake

– In game one, she hit her second home run of the season in a pivotal 5-3 win before going 1-2 with two runs, two walks and a RBI in the second contest

Pelham, Ala.: Tied 1-1 late in regulation, a last-minute goal by the Bulls proved to be the difference maker, as the Bulls defeated Evansville 2-1 on Thursday night at Pelham Civic Complex. The Thunderbolts next home game will be on Thursday, April 7^th at 7:00pm CST as they host the Vermilion County Bobcats.  For tickets, call (812)422-BOLT (2658), buy online at EvansvilleThunderbolts.com, or buy tickets in person at the Ford Center Box Office.

The Bulls struck first on an early opportunity in the first period, as Carson Rose scored at 1:50 to put the Bulls in front 1-0. Despite 16 shots on goal, Evansville was unable to tie the game in the first period.  The Thunderbolts dominated play in the second period, outshooting Birmingham 12-6, and were rewarded as Josh Adkins scored from Cameron Cook and Timothy Faulkner at 15:15 to tie the game.  Evansville nearly took a 2-1 lead, however a goal by Brennan Feasey was waived off due to the shot being high-sticked into the net.  On a late opportunity, Alex Cohen scored for Birmingham with only 50 seconds remaining in regulation, and the Bulls held on in the final seconds for the victory.

Adkins scored Evansville’s lone goal, while Chris Janzen stopped 24 of 26 shots faced in his professional debut.  Tonight was the last meeting of the regular season between the Thunderbolts and Birmingham Bulls.

VINCENNES, Ind. – The Vincennes University men’s basketball team continues to add to their 2022 recruiting class with the signing of six-foot-seven, 225-pound forward Victor Lado Thursday afternoon.

Lado comes to Vincennes University after leading Pleasure Ridge Park High School in Louisville to the 2022 21st District Championship.

“We are very excited about Victor,” VU Hall of Fame Head Coach Todd Franklin said. “He brings size and length. He’s got very good pop off the floor going straight up, where we can dump the ball off to him for dunks or he could block shots. He also has a developing ability to be able to pick and pop and be able to hit some threes, which gives him a unique quality as a big.”

Lado averaged 14.1 points and 7.3 rebounds per game last season for the Panthers under head coach Larry Kihnley and shot an impressive 64-percent from the field, 38-percent from three-point range and 74-percent from the free throw line.

Lado was named to the All-District and All-Region teams and was named a Kentucky/Ohio All-Star, after guiding the Panthers to a 23-7 record this past season.

Lado most recently scored a team-high 23 points and grabbed 12 rebounds in the 6th, 7th Region All-Star Game Saturday.

For his career, Lado scored 659 points and grabbed 334 rebounds over his three-year career and has averaged 13.4 points and 6.8 rebounds per game in his final two seasons at PRP.

“Victor comes from a winning program at PRP and by all accounts is supposed to be an outstanding guy,” Franklin added. “That’s what we’ve seen when we’ve dealt with him. He’s a young man that is still improving. He was an All-District, All-Region player this year in a very tough Region, probably the best Region in the state of Kentucky.”

“Then you add on that he was the leading scorer and leading rebounder in the Louisville Region All-Star game. He’s gotten much bigger in the last year; he’s gone from 205 to 225 and he’s young. He just turned 18 at the end of January and a lot of these guys coming out of high school now are 19, sometimes getting close to 20. He’s a young guy that could keep developing and we are excited about what he could become.”

“He will be able to come up and be with us over the summer, which is an added bonus. So he will get a chance to be with the guys and get some summer classes and develop and give him a much better chance of hitting the ground running in the fall.”

The Vincennes University Athletic Department is excited to welcome Victor to the 2022 Trailblazer recruiting class.

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