EVANSVILLE WINS IN WALK-OFF FASHION

Evansville vs Florence

It took 10 innings to decide a winner at Bosse Field Saturday night before J.R. Davis lifted the Evansville Otters to a 4-3 win over the Florence Y'alls.

For the second consecutive night, Brennan Price kicked off the game with a first-inning solo home run.  

The lead doubled in the second for the Y'alls, making Evansville starter Austin Gossmann pay for a throwing error. 

In the home half of the second, the Otters found offense for the first time. After a leadoff walk from Elijah MacNamee, Jeffrey Baez put Evansville on the board with an RBI double. 

The Otters found the lead in the third as Dakota Phillips brought in a pair of runs on a two-run double. 

From there, the Otters' lead stayed 3-2 until the sixth when the Y'alls used another Evansville error to their advantage. Axel Johnson brought in the game-tying run with an RBI double to left to even the game at 3-3.

The game remained a 3-3 tie through the ninth inning and into the tenth. After Jake Polancic emphatically closed the top half of the tenth with a strikeout of Price, the Otters' offense finished things off. 

After a popout from Andy Armstrong on an attempted bunt, Davis entered the game as a pinch hitter. Davis ended the game with an RBI single right back up the middle to score the ghost runner Justin Felix from second. The 4-3 win was good for the Otters' fifth-straight victory. 

The win went to Polancic in relief, while Kent Klyman received the loss for Florence.

Empire State vs Ottawa

The Ottawa Titans (51-38) slugged their way to a 9-6 victory over the Empire State Greys on Saturday night, taking the series,

For a second straight night, the Greys jumped on the board first with a sacrifice fly from Willies Estrada in the second. Chris Burica (win, 8-6) allowed three hits in the second, with the final one coming off the bat of Paul Mondesi to score Trey Woosley.

Down 2-0, Jason Dicochea jumped on the first offering from Mizuki Akatsuzka (loss, 2-4) in the bottom of the second, belting a solo shot over the fence in left. Following back-to-back one-out hits from AJ Wright and Kai Moody, Liam McArthur brought home the tying run with a sacrifice fly to left.

Jake Sanford crushed his first of two homers of the night with one on in the third, making it 4-2.

The Greys got within one with a sac fly from Woosley in the fourth, cashing in a leadoff single from Manny Garcia.

Wright and Moody started a rally in the bottom half of the fourth, getting aboard for the top of the order. McArthur drove in his second of the night with an infield single. After a sac bunt put two in scoring position with one out, Clay Fisher flew out deep to centre, scoring two with a sacrifice fly. McArthur turned on the jets from second, hustling home to make it 7-3.

Burica would allow three straight singles in the fifth, leading to a one-out walk of Robbie Carling, bringing home a run. Garcia then made it a two-run game with a sac fly to centre.

The Titans' southpaw would get the hook after five, allowing five runs, on nine hits, and striking out three in the win.

After a run in the sixth, Sanford belted a solo homer to right to start the seventh for his 20th of the season, making it 9-5. With a 4-for-4 night, Sanford is 7-for-8 in the series, with four-round trippers.

Matt Valin tossed three shutout innings out of the bullpen to hold the lead before Matt Terrones came on to work the ninth. The Greys tagged Terrones for a run on three hits, making it 9-6.

Kevin Escorcia (save, 16) struck out Jose Mercado and Carling to lock down the ballgame.

Sussex County vs Quebec 

The Quebc Capitales defeated the Sussex County Miners on Saturday night via sudden death by a score of 3-4.

The Miners got to scoring first in the top of the first with a homerun from Yanio Perez. 

However, Quebec would retaliate in the bottom of the fifth with a single from Yordan Manduley, and Marc-Antoine Lebreux to make it 1-3. 

The Miners would score two runs between the top of the sixth and the top of the eighth to make it 3-3. 

The Capitales would ultimately come out on top with winning in sudden death and lead to their 3-4 win. 

Nick Horvath would get the win for Quebec. 

New Jersey vs Trois-Rivières

The New Jersey Jackals defeated the Trois-Rivières Aigles on Saturday night by a score of 10-8.

The Jackals got to scoring early with the Aigles walking in a run by hitting Alfredo Mart with a pitch. 

The Aigle would get ahead in the second by scoring three runs to make 1-3. 

However, New Jersey would not give up and put together four runs in the top of the fourth to make it 5-3.

The Aigles and Jackals would continue to swap the lead a few times between the next few innings, but New Jersey would  ultimately get ahead in the top of the eighth by scoring four runs to make the score 10-7. 

The Aigles would attempt the comeback in the ninth but would not be enough and would lose 10-8. 

Christian Allegretti would get the loss for the AIgles while Austin Smith would get the win while Jason Pineda got the save for New Jersey.  

Tri-City vs New York

Jake MacKenzie's eighth inning single drove in what proved to be the winning run as the host New York Boulders rebounded from watching an eight-run lead disappear in an 11-10 in over the visiting Tri-City Valley Cats on Saturday at Clover Stadium in Pomona.

The win gave the Boulders sole possession of fourth place in the Frontier League's Eastern Division, 1/2-game behind the Ottawa Titans for third place and the final playoff spot in the division.

Francisco Del Valle led off the eighth inning for the Boulders by doubling off of Tri-City reliever Adam Hofacket. A wild pitch advanced Del Valle to third. MacKenzie then lined a single through the left side to give New York an 11-10 advantage.

Tri-City overcame an eight-run deficit by scoring six times in the sixth inning and four times in the seventh to take a 10-8 lead and put a strong start by New York's Kyle Mott in the rearview mirror.

In  the sixth, with Dan Goggin on in relief of Mott, the first five batters of the frame reached base with one run scoring on a wild pitch and a second on a bases loaded walk issued to Pavin Parks, Ryan Munoz came in for the Boulders and gave up a sacrifice fly to Brad Zunica before Carson McCusker hit a three-run home run to bring the Valley Cats to within 8-6.

The homer was McCusker's 12th of the year.

In the seventh, Parks touched up Munoz for a two-run single before Denis Phipps plated the inning's third run with a sacrifice fly. The frame's fourth run crossed on an error by New York first baseman Giovanni Garbella.

The rally left the Valley Cats with a 10-8 lead.

The Boulders, though, answered in the bottom of the seventh, tying the game at 10-10 on a Max Smith two-run home run, his 20th of the season, off of Brett Hanewich, the Valley Cats' fifth pitcher of the night.

Mott gave the Boulders five shutout innings in his first start of the season. He allowed only three hits, did not walk a batter and struck out four.

The Boulders had raced out to their 8-0 lead after four innings, scoring four in the first and two each in the second and fourth.

The first inning featured RBI singles from Austin Dennis and Chris Kwitzer, as well as a bases loaded walk to Giovanni Garbella, In the second inning, Jake MacKenzie knocked in both runs with a single; then, in the fourth, New York got run-scoring singles from Tucker Nathans and Smith.

David Vinsky scored runs for the Boulders in the first and second innings, giving him 92 for the season and breaking the New York team record of 91 put up by Jared McDonald in 2015,

Zach Schneider got the win for New York with 1 1/3 innings of scoreless relief. He improved to 3-4 on the season. Matt Leon closed out the victory, tossing the ninth inning to pick up his second save of the year.

Hofacket fell to 9-5 by taking the loss for the Valley Cats.

Joliet vs Windy City

Garrett Christman tossed a complete game shutout and Bren Spillane homered and drove in four runs as the ThunderBolts beat the Joliet Slammers 5-0 at Ozinga Field Saturday night.

Spillane got the scoring started for the Bolts (32-56) with a solo homer in the bottom of the second. His 12th home run of the year tied him with Jairus Richards for tops on the team.

The score remained 1-0 into the sixth as both Christman and Joliet starter Trevor Charpie controlled the game. Through five frames, there were only five combined hits.

Spillane, who has an OPS of 1.200 since the all-star break, gave the ThunderBolts a little breathing room in the sixth as he doubled home Richards, who had hit a two-bagger himself earlier in the inning.

 The Bolts broke it open in the eighth inning. Richards was hit by a pitch and Robinson walked. Spillane brought both of them home on his second double of the night. Brian Klein followed with a double of his own to make the score 5-0.

The late offensive support was more than needed by Christman. The veteran right-hander was in control throughout the game. He allowed only five hits, all singles. The Slammers had multiple hits in only one inning, which was ended on a double play. They did not get a runner to third the entire night. 

The complete game was Chrisman's second of the season and first in a nine-inning contest. He improved to 4-6 with the win. Charpie (4-5) was good in the loss, allowing two runs over six innings with ten strikeouts.

Schaumburg vs Gateway

The Gateway Grizzlies took a 3-0 lead into the bottom of the ninth inning on Saturday night in front of a sellout crowd at Wintrust Field, and nearly lost that lead as the Schaumburg Boomers rallied, but John Murphy was able to shut the door in a 3-2 Gateway win, evening the weekend series at one game apiece.  

Both starters were outstanding in the contest- Lukas Veinbergs (5-1) continued his stellar month of August by firing six shutout innings, allowing just two infield hits to the powerful Boomers lineup while striking out three. Kobey Schlotman (4-2) was almost as good, as he allowed just one run in his first six innings of work, coming on a two-out RBI double by Abdiel Diaz that scored Clint Freeman from first base in the top of the second inning for a 1-0 Grizzlies lead.  

The score remained 1-0 until the seventh, when Isaac Benard came up huge with a two-run double to chase the Boomers' starter from the game and make it 3-0. Anderson DeLeon and Sam Gardner tossed scoreless innings in the seventh and eighth, bringing the lead to the ninth.  

Murphy entered for the save, and gave up a leadoff triple to Chase Dawson before striking out Blake Berry for the first out. Clint Hardy then singled up the middle to break up the shutout and make the score 3-1, bringing the tying run to the plate. After a walk to Wyatt Stapp, Will Salas hit a potential double-play ball to Trevor Achenbach at second base, but he bobbled the ball for an error, loading the bases. 

Murphy then threw a wild pitch to Blake Grant-Parks to make it 3-2 and put the tying run at third base with the winning run at second. But the Grizzlies' all-star closer stopped the bleeding there when he most needed it, getting two straight ground balls to Diaz at shortstop to end the contest, earning his ninth save in the process in front of the raucous road crowd of 7,491. 

Lake Erie vs Washington

The Lake Erie Crushers continued their winning ways at home on Saturday night, as they used great pitching and a four run fourth inning to defeat the Washington Wild Things, 5-2 at Mercy Health Stadium. 

The Crushers (47-42) have now won six straight overall, eight in a row at home and 13 out of their last 16, while the loss for the Wild Things (56-33) was their fifth in their last six games. 

Washington got on the board first in the top of the second inning. Wagner Lagrange started the inning with a double and came around to score on Cam Balego's RBI groundout. That was the only run Joseph Sgambelluri (10-5) allowed in his six strong innings of work. 

Lake Erie went to work in the fourth inning, sending eight batters to the plate and scored four times on five hits to take the lead. Kenen Irizarry led the inning off with a single to right and made his way to third on Austin White's double down the left field line. Kokko Figueiredo followed with a two run single to center. Bryan DeLaRosa singled to left and Najee Gaskins belted a run-scoring double to the gap in left center. Connor Owings drove in the final run of the inning on a sacrifice fly. 

Washington was able to inch closer in the top of the seventh when Ballego belted a solo homer to left, his fourth of the year to bring the Wild Things within two (4-2). 

The Crushers responded quickly in the home half of the seventh with a solo homer as well. Gaskins delivered again as he smashed his first homer of the year to plate the final run of the contest. 

Washington threatened in the eighth inning. After back-to-back one out singles from Scotty Dubrule and Triston Peterson, Sam Curtis retired Lagrange and Andrew Czech to end the inning. 

Sgambelluri picked up the win for the Crushers after allowing just a run on three hits through six strong innings and struck out five batters on the night. Alexis Rivero (19) scored his second save in as many nights by working a scoreless ninth inning. Daren Osby (6-4) took the loss for Washington after allowing four runs on eight hits while striking out eight over six innings.

Most of Lake Erie's damage offensively was done by the bottom of the order. The 7-8-9 hitters, Figueiredo, DeLaRosa and Gaskins combined to go 6-for-9 on the night and drove in four of Lake Erie's five runs. Gaskins led the way, going 3-for-3 while Figueiredo went 2-for-3 and extended his on base streak to 17 games, and Irizarry turned a in a multi-hit game, going 2-for-4.