Evansville Otters Game Preview
July 19, 2015 - Frontier League (FL)
Evansville Otters News Release
Josh Allen of the Evansville Otters
(Evansville Otters)
Evansville, IN- After an extremely sloppy game that saw a total of six runs, four of them unearned, between the Joliet Slammers (22-31) and the Evansville Otters (35-18), the Otters look to sweep the Slammers in their early evening contest (a 5:05 pm CDT start) at Bosse Field later today.
The Otters swept the Lake Erie Crushers to finish off the first half of the Frontier League season and are one win from doing the same to the Joliet Slammers to start off the second half after winning on Friday night 9-8 and last night 4-2. The Otters were down 1-0 after three innings due to an error by shortstop Cory Urquhart.
However, Urquhart and Jeremy Nowak combined to score a pair of runs in the fifth inning as the Otters took advantage of two errors by the Slammers and a sacrifice fly by Josh Allen. The Otters bumped their lead to 3-1 with Urquhart scoring again on an error by the Slammers' reliever David Kubiak. They would plate the first earned run of the game in the eighth inning, and that only crossed home on a wild pitch.
Edgar Lopez was a little shaky in the ninth inning, allowing his first earned run of the season, but with the tying run in scoring position, Lopez induced a grounder to Allen at second to finish off the Slammers.
Josh Allen has been a boon to the offense in this series for the Otters and continues to contribute any way he can. In the first game of the series, Allen scored twice and drove in two runs with a double in the second inning. The first time Allen scored he reached base after getting hit, the 20th time he had been hit as an Evansville Otter, breaking the previous record of 19 with Juan Dowling.
In game two of the series Allen continued to pester Slammers pitchers, driving in the first run of the game for the Otters with a sacrifice fly and tying the game at 1-1. In his next at-bat he continued his team-first approached and dropped down a sacrifice bunt (his team-leading seventh of the season), which was thrown away by Kubiak, allowing the Otters to take a 3-1 lead.
For good measure, in his next time up at the dish, Allen was plunked with a ball for his 21st time as an Otter and 13th time on the season, which ties him for second in the single season record books with Steve Martin (2004). And Allen makes pitchers pay once he gets on the base paths as well; he is the only Otter in double-digits with steals, having swiped ten bases, four more than the next highest Otter. All the contributions from Allen come in a season where he is posting a .981 fielding percentage as one of the best, if not the best middle infield combinations in the Frontier League and starting in 49 of 53 games.
Josh Allen and the rest of the Otters defense will look to backup Tyler Vail who takes the mound in the series and season finale against the Joliet Slammers tonight. Vail is 5-2 on the season and has won his last three starts. He was touched up for a couple of runs early on in his last start before settling down to make the seventh inning when the bullpen allowed both inherited runners to score, ballooning his game line to 6.1 IP, five runs (four earned) on six hits while walking four and striking out three. The Slammers will combat Vail with Hunter Ackerman, a left-handed pitcher who is 1-2 with a 7.02 ERA.
The scheduled first pitch is for 5:05 pm CDT and the pregame show on 91.5 FM WUEV with Mike Radmonski, Bill McKeon and Jake Donnelly will start at 4:45 pm CDT. Fans can purchase tickets by calling the team's front office at 812.435.8686 or online at EvansvilleOtters.com. 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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 Josh Allen of the Evansville Otters |
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