OTTAWA, ON, Can. – The Evansville Otters (24-39) took the opener against the Ottawa Titans (31-33) on Friday night, 5-2. This is the first time this season Evansville has won back-to-back road games.
Both teams got runners on through the first three innings, but neither could push any runs across. For the Otters, they sent Braden Scott for his 13th start and he stranded four baserunners through the first three innings.
Ottawa struck first with a two-run home run in the bottom of the fourth.
Not to be outdone, Evansville responded with two solo home runs of their own. JJ Cruz led off the inning with a two-strike blast into right field. Mason White almost had his first home run of the year, only to be robbed. Then Dennis Pierce hit his team leading ninth home run of the year, and his third of the week, to tie the game at two.
Scott worked a clean fifth and Evansville struck for a run in the sixth with a triple off the bat of Ellis Schwartz, who now has a hit in his last seven starts.
Scott worked through some more traffic, stranding three runners over the next two innings to preserve the 3-2 lead. He finished his seven innings only allowing two runs, working his sixth quality start of the season. Nick McAuliffe followed in the eighth, and after two runners reached scoring position with one out, he got the next two batters without allowing a run to score.
The Otters added some cushion in the ninth with back-to-back doubles from Cruz and White. L.J. Jones added another run with a two-out single to extend the lead to 5-2.
Nolan Thebiay entered to pitch the ninth and worked a 1-2-3 inning to end the game and earn his first professional save. Evansville pitchers ended the night stranding 12 runners while only allowing two runs.
Evansville is back in action tomorrow night at 5:00 p.m. CT for the middle game of the series before the noon CT series finale on Sunday. The Otters then travel back to Bosse Field to host the Lake Erie Crushers to end the month.
