Balog & Allen Continue to Rake as Howell Earns First Win as Otter
August 28, 2015 - Frontier League (FL)
Evansville Otters News Release
Washington, PA- The Evansville Otters (47-41) rocked the Washington Wild Things (38-50) tonight, scoring seven runs in the first inning and never looking back to the tune of an 11-2 victory.
The first batter of the game, Rolando Gomez, grounded out to third, but then the Otters scored quickly and scored in bunches. John Schultz singled before back-to-back walks by Chris Sweeney and Dane Phillips loaded the bases for Nik Balog who singled to left-center for a 2-0 Otters lead. After Chris Elder popped out, Josh Allen homered for the second time of the season at CONSOL Energy Park, a three run shot off of the scoreboard in left, pushing the Otters' advantage to 5-0.
Alex Cruz followed with a broken bat single to right and Cory Urquhart hit a ground rule double to center field, giving Gomez a chance to redeem himself for the leadoff groundout, and he rapped a single into right-center, putting the sixth and seventh runs up on the board in the first inning for the Otters.
Blaine Howell, who started the game for the Otters, got into trouble in the first inning and allowed a run, but Balog got the run back in the top of the second, crushing his sixth home run of the season and second in the last two nights. The Wild Things got another un in the third, but that is all they would get against Howell who settled down and started racking up the strikeouts. He eventually went eleven innings, striking out eleven.
The Otters got a run in the fifth on an error by the third basemen and the process repeated itself in the seventh inning, leaving the Otters with a 10-2 lead. They put the final run up on the board in the top of the ninth inning when Anthony Renz picked up his first hit as an Otter, ripping a single to left and an Otters 11-2 advantage.
Brodie Leibradnt took the ball from Howell in the seventh and despite walking the leadoff batter, had pretty smooth sailing from there. The son of former major league reliever and Braves pitcher Charlie Leibrandt, stifled the Wild Things the rest of the frame, getting a flyout, popout and strikeout to retire the side. His eighth was uneventful and so was the ninth, which, because despite the score and he went three innings in relief and closed out the game, gave him his first professional save.
Nik Balog has now driven in eleven in his last seven games and has three home runs in that span. Every single batter to come to the plate, including both pinch-hitters, reached base safely on the night and all spots in the lineup either scored or drove in a run. The Otters are back at it again tomorrow night at the same time against the Wild Things, a scheduled 6:05 pm CDT start.
Matt Fraudin, who is 2-2 with a 3.06 ERA for the Wild Things will be opposed by Trevor Walch (8-6, 2.37) and is looking to bounce back after a rough outing against River City on Sunday. The pregame show with Jake Donnelly is slotted to begin at 5:45 pm CDT. For all of the latest information on the Otters, log on to EvansvilleOtters.com or follow the team's twitter account @EvilleOtters.
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