OTTERS CRUSH FIVE HR, CRUISE PAST 'CATS
Troy, NY. – The Evansville Otters bashed five home runs to overwhelm the Tri-City ValleyCats 11-7 on Saturday night. Evansville tied a season high of five home runs, worked a year-best nine walks and totaled 14 hits to even up the series at a game apiece. Jeffrey Baez led the Otters with two home runs for his fourth multi-homer game of the season. He has 12 home runs on the season with five of them against the ValleyCats. Aaron Beck hit his first pro home run, Noah Myers blasted his ninth homer on the season and George Callil topped off the power surge with a two-run shot for his third home run of the year. Baez started the scoring with a 375 foot two-run homer in the first. Kona Quiggle hit a two-RBI double in the second to extend the lead to 4-0. Tri-City answered with a two-run home run in the second but Baez and Beck's solo blasts in the fifth brought the lead back to four runs. Myers hit his solo home run in the sixth and Callil hit his two-run homer in the seventh. Quiggle topped the scoring with another RBI double in the seventh inning. The ValleyCats plated five runs over the final five innings but never worked the lead under two runs. On the mound, Justin Watland earned his fourth win of the season. The Otters' starter worked five innings, allowing three runs on seven hits with three strikeouts. All nine Otters' batters reached base. Jomar Reyes and Beck both mounted three-hit days. The Evansville native Beck worked his way on base all five times at the plate and scored three runs.
FLORENCE, Ky. (July 15) – The Washington Wild Things responded to last night's loss by pounding out 18 runs on 13 hits and drawing 14 walks, racing their way to a win by a final of 18-6 to even the series in Florence.
Wagner Lagrange paced the Washington offense with a 4-for-4 night with four runs, five RBI and a double and drew a walk in the win. Tristan Peterson hit a home run and drove in four, while Melvin Novoa added three RBI and Robert Chayka knocked in two.
In all, seven Wild Things posted at least a hit and six drove in at least a run. Seven drew at least one walk, with Abraham Sequera walking four times to lead the charge.
Florence scored first on an RBI single in the second before Washington began the onslaught. The Wild Things scored four runs in the fourth, nine in the fifth, four in the sixth and once in the seventh. The fourth was highlighted by a Chayka RBI knock, the fifth by Peterson's two-run bomb, a two-run single by Novoa and a bases-clearing, three-run double from Wagner Lagrange. The sixth featured three runs scoring on bases-loaded walks and the seventh inning tally came on a Lagrange sac fly.
Florence scored in the fourth on a Brennan Price solo shot, scored twice in the fifth and once in the sixth and seventh innings after that.
Stephen Knapp got the win to go to 4-0, after allowing three runs in two innings in relief of Kobe Foster, who was pulled after two innings of work. Ray Pacella worked three frames and Ian McMahon worked two scoreless with two strikeouts.
The series is now even, and the rubber game is scheduled for 1:07 p.m. tomorrow, Sunday, July 16. Justin Showalter will start for Washington against Jake McMahill for Florence.
Sauget, IL (July 15, 2023) – The Gateway Grizzlies took both ends of a doubleheader against the Empire State Greys on Saturday night, coming back to win 7-6 on a walk-off single by D.J. Stewart in the resumption of last night's rain-shortened contest before a four-run fourth inning plus a quality start from Collin Sullivan led Gateway to a 6-2 victory in the second game.
With a 2-0 lead entering the top of the fifth inning of the first game when play resumed this evening, the Greys came back to tie the score in the top of the sixth inning thanks to an RBI single by Manny Garcia and a solo home run by Josh Sears. After Stewart's second RBI single of the game put Gateway ahead again at 3-2 in the bottom of the same inning, the Greys plated four runs in their half of the seventh, going ahead on a three-run home run by Quentin Holmes, and making the score 6-2 on a balk by Trevor Tietz.
Gateway would come all the way back in the contest. An RBI infield single by Mark Vierling with the bases loaded cut their deficit to 6-4 in the bottom of the seventh before rain came and caused a delay of around 30 minutes. In the eighth inning, a two-out error by shortstop Luis Atiles plated Eric Rivera and made it a 6-5 game heading to the ninth.
Peter Zimmermann led off the final inning with an infield single, and moved to second, then third base on a pair of wild pitches by Tanner Propst (1-2). Vierling also walked on the second wild toss to put the winning run on base, then went to second on yet another wild pitch. Stewart came up next, and hit a walk-off, two-run single off the top of the left-center field wall, giving him four RBIs in the contest and giving Gateway their first walk-off win of the season.
Stewart would also lead off game two in the bottom of the first inning by getting the Grizzlies the lead with another RBI single, this time with two outs off Michael Barker (3-6). That lead would hold until the fourth inning, when the Grizzlies used the extra-base hit to plate four runs in the frame, expanding the lead to 5-0 thanks to an RBI double by Willie Estrada, an RBI triple by Jairus Richards, and a two-run home run by Andrew Penner.
Sullivan (7-2) took it from there, as the Grizzlies' all-star right-hander tossed six innings of two-run ball with no walks and nine strikeouts in the series-clinching contest.
Gateway will look to sweep the series at Grizzlies Ballpark on Sunday, July 16, at 5:45 p.m. CT, sending Joey Gonzalez to the mound for the finale against Greys right-hander and former Grizzlie Andres Rodriguez.
POMONA, NY — The series finale between the New York Boulders and Quebec Capitales scheduled for today, July 16, at Clover Stadium has been postponed due to anticipated inclement weather, the team announced.
The teams will make up the game as part of a doubleheader Friday, August 18, at Stade Canac in Quebec, since the Capitales are not scheduled to return to Clover Stadium for the remainder of the regular season.
The four-game series, which will take place two weeks before the end of the regular season, could have a significant impact on the Frontier League playoff picture. Quebec (31-22) is currently tied second place in the East Division with the Tri-City ValleyCats, while the Boulders (29-22) are currently tied for fourth place with the Sussex County Miners.
Avon, OH – Saturday's game between the Ottawa Titans and Lake Erie Crushers has been postponed due to inclement weather.
The game has been rescheduled as part of a doubleheader tomorrow, July 16, with a time of 1:00 pm. Both games are scheduled for seven innings. Game two will commence 30 minutes after the completion of the series opener.
