Timely Hitting Leads Otters to Doubleheader Sweep
June 15, 2025 - Frontier League (FL)
Evansville Otters News Release
EVANSVILLE, Ind. - The Evansville Otters (14-17) beat the Windy City Thunderbolts (8-25) in both games of today's doubleheader, 3-0 and 5-4.
In game one, a resumption of the suspended game from yesterday, it was the pitching that got it done.
Joan Gonzalez came in out of the bullpen to resume the game from the rain out and was incredible. He threw two innings and struck out four.
The offense helped him out in the home half of the fourth inning. It started with three walks to load the bases for Logan Brown. He sent a rocket down the left field line to score two and give the Otters a 2-0 lead. JJ Cruz then came up and hit a sac fly to make it 3-0.
In the sixth, Nick McAuliffe was called upon to get some big outs. He would strike out two and work through some trouble to get through the sixth scoreless. Then, in the seventh and final inning, he struck out the final batter to force a rubber match later in the afternoon.
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Game two saw Landon Willeman make his third start of the season coming off his first career quality start. After a quick first out, Willeman surrendered three straight singles, allowing one run to score. The Otters defense punished a couple of baserunning mistakes from Windy City to get the two final outs.
Willeman followed up the shaky first inning with two quick innings where he only faced the minimum six batters. The ThunderBolts threatened with runners at second and third with one away, but Willeman struck out the next batter to finish his night. He would finish with four hits allowed, one run, one walk and three strikeouts. Grif Hughes was called on to finish the fourth, which he did with a strikeout, stranding two runners in scoring position.
Evansville's offense stumbled out of the gate, only threatening after a Pavin Parks leadoff double in the second and then being stranded at third. That would change in the fourth with back-to-back one out walks to Parks and LJ Jones led to Keenan Taylor launching his team leading sixth home run to put the Otters on top 3-1.
Hughes worked a clean fifth and Casey Delgado was called on to pitch the sixth. After two quick outs, Delgado surrendered back-to-back two-out hits that plated three runs for Windy City.
Evansville hit into two quick outs before Taylor doubled down the first base line to set up L. Brown, who muscled a two-run home run over the right field wall to put the Otters in front, 5-4.
After recording the last out in the sixth, Alex Valdez shut the door in the seventh with a fly ball out and heads up play for the Otters to tag the final runner out after he missed second base on his way back to first. Valdez finished with 1.1 innings with no hits and one walk as he earned his first win of the season.
L. Brown had a fantastic series, going 6-9 with a home run, four RBI and two doubles. Both of his RBI hits put the Otters in front with leads they wouldn't surrender.
Evansville has an off day Monday before welcoming division leading Washington back to Bosse for four games in three days. It will be a Fifth Third Bank $2 Tuesday on June 17th, with gates opening at 5:30 p.m.
All games can be heard on 96.9 WYIR and the Otters Digital Network and can be viewed live on the HomeTeam Network.
The Evansville Otters are the 2006 and 2016 Frontier League champions.
The Otters play all home games at historic Bosse Field, located at 23 Don Mattingly Way in Evansville, Ind. Stay up to date with the Evansville Otters by visiting evansvilleotters.com, or follow the Otters on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
For more information, visit evansvilleotters.com or call (812) 435-8686.
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