The Otters Rally For Four in the Ninth, End Up One Short, Lose 8-7
August 21, 2015 - Frontier League (FL)
Evansville Otters News Release
O'Fallon, MO- The Evansville Otters (51-31) attempted to mount a furious comeback when down to their final out, turning an 8-3 deficit into a 8-7 score, but it fell just short, losing 8-7 to the River City Rascals (47-35) in game one of the three game series.
It took a while for the offense to get going and they found themselves down early 3-0 after the starter for the Otters, Blaine Howell, retired the first five batters of the game before running into trouble. Howell relinquished a home run with two outs in the bottom of the second and then the next three batters for the Rascals reached, capped by a two-run two-out double to left center for the 3-0 advantage.
The Otters got one of the runs back in the sixth inning, but were robbed of more by the Rascals' shortstop Johnny Morales. Josh Allen began the inning with a single and moved up to second on a wild pitch before Dean Wilson did a good job moving the runner over with a grounder to first. Rolando Gomez came to the plate and hit a ball deep in the hole and it looked like it was going to go into left field, but Morales dove, stabbed the ball on the backhand and fired to first to get Morales. The groundout scored the run, but it stopped the Otters rally dead in its tracks.
However, the Rascals scored two in the bottom of the frame to bump the lead to four at 5-1. The Otters cut it right back to a two-run game in the top of the seventh when John Schultz led off the inning with a single to center and Chris Sweeney doubled over the center fielder's head to put men at second and third and nobody out. Back-to-back popouts made it appear as if the Otters would squander the opportunity, but Nik Balog singled up the middle to make it 5-3.
The Rascals took advantage of an Otters miscue in the bottom of the seventh, which led to three more runs and an apparently insurmountable 8-3 lead. That was the score in the top of the ninth when the Otters bats finally got going albeit, down to their final out. Allen came to the plate with runners at first and second and singled up the middle, cutting the deficit in half at 8-4. Kurt Wertz Jr., who had had the walk-off home run on Wednesday night, came to the plate and pummeled the baseball towards center and into the evergreen trees, making it a one run game at 8-7. Gomez then singled, but Urquhart grounded out to first to end the game.
Blaine Howell allowed five runs in six innings of work for his first loss with the Otters (1-1) while Lucas Laster improves to 4-3 with the win. The Otter are back at it tomorrow night at the same time (6:35 pm CDT start) with the pregame show featuring Jake Donnelly on 91.5 FM WUEV scheduled to being at 6:15 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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