TROY, N.Y. – The Evansville Otters fell Tuesday night in the series opener to the Tri-City ValleyCats 9-2 at Joseph L. Bruno Stadium.
The Otters’ (9-19) bullpen struggled, which allowed the ValleyCats (15-13) to gain a commanding lead later after a great performance from the Evansville starter, Parker Brahms (1-4).
Taking the loss, Brahms went six and two-third innings. He left the game allowing two runs (one earned) on five hits, with two men on base after back-to-back walks.
Tri-City scored in the opening frame on an error from the Otters’ defense, making it 1-0. They added a second run in the next inning on a base hit and jumped ahead early.
In the seventh inning, Leoni De La Cruz came in to relieve Brahms and surrendered a three-run home run.
The next inning, Evansville scored their first runs of the game. With a hit-by-pitch and a walk with two outs, Mason White then came to the plate and smoked a double to the left-center field wall, plating Jake Green and Troy Hamilton.
Four more runs came in for the ValleyCats in the bottom of the frame. Their runs came on three walks and a hit-by-pitch.
Easton Klein (2-1) took home the win, tossing seven innings of shutout ball in his longest appearance of the year.
Randy Bednar had a two-hit game for the Otters.
Evansville will attempt to bounce back tomorrow against Tri-City. They have an early bird special tomorrow with a 9:00 a.m. CT first pitch. Coverage is available on the Otters Digital Network and FloBaseball.
