The Evansville Otters found themselves in another low-scoring battle Saturday, but the Southern Illinois Miners were the ones who broke through offensively, taking game two 4-1.
With the Miners’ win, Southern Illinois secured a series win, their first at Bosse Field since 2015.
The first three innings featured a pitcher’s duel between Otters starter Jake Welch and Miners starter Steven Ridings, who had been activated off the injured list before Saturday’s start.
Ridings went three innings with four strikeouts in his first start since July 22.
In fact, Welch had a perfect game through the first five innings.
The top of the sixth inning featured the breakthrough by the Miners’ offense, sparked by the lower part of their lineup.
Kyle Davis and Joe Duncan had back-to-back singles to lead off the inning.
Two batters later, Omar Obregon recorded an RBI single to score Davis. An RBI groundout by Yeltsin Gudino gave the Miners a 2-0 lead.
The Miners would double their lead in the seventh with two more runs, one off an RBI single by Davis and another off an Evansville error.
Seven innings would be it for Evansville’s Welch, who would end up with the loss, moving his record to 6-4. In another solid outing, Welch surrendered four runs – three earned – off six hits with seven strikeouts.
Evansville relievers Drew Beyer and Michael Gizzi combined for two scoreless innings to give the Otters a chance in the bottom of the ninth.
Elijah MacNamee led off the inning with a single. MacNamee had three hits and a run scored in the contest.
Hunter Cullen followed suit with a single of his own, moving MacNamee to third and no outs. Cullen had two hits in the game.
Miners reliever Jordan Brink got the next batter, Mike Rizzitello, to ground into a double play, sacrificing the run from third for two outs.
Brink would then get Jack Meggs to hit one into the air for the final out, sealing the 4-1 win for the Miners.
Miners reliever Cody Thompson, who came in after Ridings, pitched 2.2 innings scoreless and was credited with the win, improving his record to 3-2.
