The Evansville Otters slugged their way to an 11-7 victory over the Florence Y’alls Tuesday night in the first of a three-game set from Y’alls Ballpark.
With the win, the Otters moved into a two-way tie with the Y’alls for first place in the West Division in the early going of the 2021 Frontier League regular season.
The scoring opened in the bottom of the first inning with a leadoff home run from Y’alls third baseman Taylor Bryant.
The Otters answered right back in the top of the second, when Riley Krane hit his third home run of the season to lead off the inning and tie the game at 1-1.
The score changed again a half inning later, when Harrison DiNicola led off the frame with another home run for Florence. The two clubs swapped leadoff homers in back-to-back-to-back half innings.
The Y’alls would go on to score three more runs in the second on back-to-back, two-out hits.
Evansville’s J.R. Davis cut the Y’alls’ lead in half in the next inning with a two-out, two-run home run to left field. Davis has now homered in consecutive games.
After a scoreless bottom of the third and a scoreless fourth, the Otters rallied to tie the game in the top of the fifth. Krane drove in his second run with a two-out double before Davis tied the game with another two-out knock.
Evansville took their first lead of the night in the sixth, when Elijah MacNamee walked with the bases loaded to force in the go-ahead run with two outs.
Dalton Stambaugh settled down after grinding through his first two innings as Tuesday’s starting pitcher to pitch a scoreless third, fourth, and fifth innings. He was lifted with two outs in the sixth after fanning his last batter, Mitch Piatnik.
Overall, Stambaugh went 5.2 innings, giving up five runs – four earned – off seven hits and three walks, and striking out seven.
Tyler Spring came on to finish the sixth. He would end up throwing an inning and a third, striking out three.
The Otters extended their lead with a four-run seventh. Dakota Phillips hit an opposite field, two-run homer — his second in his last three games.
After an RBI groundout from Josh Henderson, Miles Gordon hit a sac fly to centerfield to score Justin Felix from third, which capped the scoring in the inning. Evansville carried a 10-5 lead into the eighth.
The Otters scored their final run in the top of the eighth on another bases loaded walk, this time to Felix.
Justin Lewis came out of the bullpen to pitch the eighth, allowing one run on two hits and a walk.
Samson Abernathy, who was recently acquired via trade from the Sioux City Explorers, pitched the ninth in his Otters debut. He gave up one run on one hit and one walk.
Davis went 5-for-5 on the night for the Otters, building on his 4-for-4 performance in the second game of the doubleheader Sunday. He has now recorded a base hit in ten consecutive at-bats.
Andy DeJesus, Riley Krane, and Bryce Denton all had muti-hit performances, as well.
The Otters will look to secure another series victory with a win over Florence Wednesday. First pitch will be at 5:31 p.m. CT.
