Nieves Goes Six Innings of One Hit Baseball in Otters Debut
May 20, 2015 - Frontier League (FL)
Evansville Otters News Release
Evansville Otters Pitcher Efrain Nieves
(Evansville Otters)
WASHINGTON, P.A.- The Evansville Otters (3-2) jumped out on top of the Washington Wild Things (1-4) in the very first inning and never looked back on their way to a 5-2 victory. Efrain Nieves was stellar out on the mound and John Schultz blasted his first home run of the season to propel the Otters, who grab their first series win of the season.
Things started well for the Otters as John Schultz doubled to the opposite field and after Shayne Houck was retired, Nik Balog came to the plate and singled through the hole between first and second for his first RBI of the season, giving the Otters the 1-0 lead. Chris Sweeney followed with a single of his own to plate Balog and the Otters were up 2-0 after a half inning of play.
Efrain Nieves confounded Wild Things hitters through the first two innings, keeping them off the scoreboard and setting the table for John Schultz to leadoff the top of the third inning. Despite falling behind 0-2, Schultz waited back on a hanging curveball and blasted it over the right field wall for his first home run of the season and pushing the lead to 3-0 for the Otters.
They would make it 5-0 in the top of the seventh inning with the use of a little small ball.
After Wild Things starter Matt Sergey was pulled before the start of the sixth, Joe Iorio issued two walks to begin the frame. Jaime Del Valle laid down the sacrifice and the Otters quickly had runners in scoring position with just one out. Cory Urquhart blooped a ball into shallow right that dropped in front of the right fielder and drove home both runs thanks to a great head first dive by Josh Allen, avoiding the tag of the Wild Things catcher.
Nieves left after six innings of work in which he allowed just one hit, no runs and struck out five. He gave way to Adam Mott who immediately allowed a home run to Lee Orr, but Mott came back to strike out the side and was sent back out in the eighth where he pitched a scoreless frame.
The call was sent out to the bullpen in the ninth inning for Brandon Shimo, and some bad luck resulted in a run when both Kurt Wertz Jr. and Chris Sweeney attempted to make diving catches in shallow right center field, but neither was able to come up with the baseball. The runner from first came all the way around to score, but Shimo slammed the door on the Wild Things by striking out the next batter and giving the Otters the 5-2 victory.
Nieves improves to 1-0 on the season, winning his Frontier League debut, while Sergey drops to 0-2.
The Otters and Wild Things will wrap up their series in Pennsylvania tomorrow night with the first pitch scheduled for 6:05 CDT and the pregame show starting at 5:45 CDT. You can listen live on our website and on 91.5 F.M. WUEV in Evansville.
The Otters will not be back to the friendly confines of Bosse Field until Friday for a three game home stand against the Florence Freedom. Fans can purchase tickets by calling the team's front office at 812.435.8686 or online at EvansvilleOtters.com.
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 Evansville Otters Pitcher Efrain Nieves |
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