FL River City Rascals

Otters Sink Rascals in Series Opener

Published on August 10, 2014 under Frontier League (FL)
River City Rascals News Release


The River City Rascals and Evansville Otters played each other close for the first seven-and-a-half innings of the opening contest of their three-game set at Bosse Field, but ultimately it was the home team who emerged on top. The Otters used two four-run innings to sink the Rascals and send their large crowd home happy.

Joe Cuda took to the mound for the Rascals. The newcomer from the St. Louis Cardinal organization would ultimately take the loss in the contest, but looked sharp early. He faced just seven men in his first two innings of work, flummoxing Otter hitters and keeping them off the board.

Unfortunately, the man opposing him was even better. Preston Olson of Salt Lake City, Utah gave the Rascals fits in his first three innings. He struck out six Rascals in his first trip and had little trouble holding the 0-0 tie in place.

The Otters drew first blood in the third inning. Shayne Houck singled home Cory Urquhart in that frame to make it 1-0. Cuda did a good job of limiting the damage though, getting the Otters to strand the bases loaded and keep their lead to the minimum.

The Rascals came back with a vengeance in the top of the fourth, scoring four times. Jon Myers drove in the first two on a long homerun to left field. It was the third homerun for Myers in just six games with River City. Steve Carrillo would drive in two of his own when he doubled down the left field with two outs to bring home Joe Staley and Hector Crespo. That made it 4-1 Rascals.

The Otters would waste no time erasing that deficit. They tagged Cuda in the bottom half of the fourth, scoring four times on four hits to regain the advantage. Houck picked up two more RBI in the frame to put him at three for the game. Cuda lasted through the inning but would not return. His final line looked like this: 4 IP, 8 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 4 K, 1 BB.

Olson got back to his dominating ways from there on out, holding down the Rascals until he was pulled with two outs in the seventh. Trailing 6-4 in that inning, the Rascals had an excellent chance to tie the game against relief man Blake Monar. But they failed to cash in, with Myers grounding out with two men on to end the threat.

The Otters broke the game open in the eighth. Once again they scored four times. This time their scoring came off of Nick Kennedy, who failed to retire any of the five men that he faced. Wilson, Houck, J.R. Higley, and Chris Sweeney would all score in a circus inning that featured a costly error on a potential double play by Johnny Morales, two men walked in with the bases loaded, and a badly hit batsman (Jeremy Nowak, who had to exit after being struck in the thigh by Kennedy). When it was all said and done, the Otters had built a 10-4 lead that would prove strong enough to stay intact for the remainder of the contest.

The loss was River City's twenty-ninth of the summer. They fall back to fifteen games over .500. They have another chance at the Otters tomorrow night. First pitch will be 5:05 pm.

Check out the River City Rascals Statistics

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Frontier League Stories from August 10, 2014


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