Schaumburg, IL—The wild weekend for the Evansville Otters (28-17) and their pitching staff continued on Sunday with starter Trevor Walch walking four in five innings of work as the Otters could not come back from an early four run deficit, eventually losing 7-5 in the rubber match of the three game series against the Schaumburg Boomers (20-25).
Walch was touched up for a run in the bottom of the first inning as the Boomers collected back-to-back singled with one out before Alexi Colon hit a sacrifice fly to drive in the first run of the game. Things got worse in the bottom of the third inning when the Boomers tagged him for three runs.
With one out in the inning, Walch walked a batter then gave up a double to put runners at second and third with the one out. Jeremy Nowak misplayed a grounder over at third base to load the bases for the Boomers who took advantage of the opportunity. Justin Vasquez was plunked by Walch on a 2-0 pitch before Kyle Ruchim drove in two more with a single to push the Boomers advantage to four, 4-0.
The Otters finally broke on to the board in the top of the fourth inning. John Schultz and Chris Sweeney singled in back-to-back at bats to beign the fourth before Dane Phillips struck out to put an out on the board. Nik Balog followed him and singled, driving in a run for the fourth game in a row, cutting the lead to 4-1. After Nowak walked for the second time in the game, loading the bases, JD Dorgan ripped a 1-2 pitch to center to make it a 4-2 ballgame, but Balog was thrown out after getting a late hold sign and tripping around the third base bag to snuff out the rally.
The lead was cut to one in the Otters next at bats thanks to Sweeney and Schultz yet again. After Josh Allen was hit with one out in the inning, Schultz grounded into a fielder’s choice, but the Boomers threw the ball away trying to turn the double play, leaving Schultz at second. Sweeney followed and took the first pitch of the bat and scalded it into the right center field gap, plating Schultz and bring the Otters within one.
The Boomers extended their lead once again off of Walch in the bottom of the fifth inning and scored another off of reliever Jake Raffaele to give themselves some breathing room at 6-3 after six innings of baseball. The seventh saw the Otters claw back to within two yet again when Kurt Wertz Jr. pinch-hit and tripled off of the wall in center before Cory Urquhart knocked him home with a sac fly to center.
However, the Boomers regained a three run lead after the stretch with three singles in the first four batters, the last of which coming off of the bat of Jordan Dean for a 7-4 score. Dane Phillips brought the Otters within two in the top of the eighth, homering wall over the foul poll in right for his first home run of the season.
It looked like the Otters were going to pull all the way back, loading the bases with one out later in the inning, but Urquhart, who had been batting .300 with 15 RBI with runners in scoring position, grounding into an inning ending 4-6-3 double play.
The Otters could not mount a comeback in the ninth inning, falling to the Boomers 7-5 and losing their first series in their last four attempts.
Trevor Walch lost for the third time this summer, dropping his record to 5-3 while his ERA grew to 1.77. Peter Gehle was credited with the win after six solid innings for the Boomers where he allowed just two earned runs (three total) and is now 2-1 this summer. Clark Labitan pitched the ninth and worked around an error to grab his fifth save.
John Schultz walked for the 107th time in his career (second all time in Otters’ history) in addition to going 2-for-4 and scoring two more runs. He scored six in the series against the Boomers.
The Otters pitching staff, and in particular the starters, were wild all weekend long, walking 15 in 18 innings in addition to hitting three batters.
The Otters have a couple of days off after the loss on Sunday before playing three games in two days against the Florence Freedom on Wednesday and Thursday with Wednesday being the doubleheader day. They then head back to Evansville to complete the first half of the 2015 season with a three game series against the Lake Erie Crushers at Bosse Field, next Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
