Big Inning

Mississippi stretches the lead

After the top of the second saw Mississippi go down quietly, Evansville brought home its first run in the bottom half of the inning.

Mississippi blew the game open with a six-run third inning.

Back-to-back free passes issued to Holt and Schield put two on for Tevis Payne II, who bunted for a single before Evansville third baseman Marcos Gonzalez sailed his throw to first to bring home Holt while moving Schield to third and Payne II to second.

With it 4-1, Semo walked to load the bases and AJ Fritz blooped an RBI single to increase the lead to 5-1.

Vantrel Reed grounded into a fielder’s choice that saw the first out of the frame recorded at second, but Reed arrived safely at first while bringing home Payne II to make it 6-1.

With one away, Skinner lifted a sacrifice fly to center field that scored Semo.

Now 7-1 with two outs, Evansville starter Ben Petschke allowed a single to Furr and manager Andy McCauley turned to Andrew Garcia out of the bullpen.

The move did not pay off for Evansville as Booker delivered a two-run single to stretch Mississippi’s lead to 9-1.

Late Rally

Otters flip the game

Both offenses went quiet in the sixth as Braden Forsyth emerged from Mississippi’s bullpen and tossed a scoreless inning.

Mississippi answered Evansville’s four-run fifth in the top of the seventh when Furr walked with one out and Holt plated him with an RBI double.

Unfortunately for Mississippi, what waited on the other side of the seventh-inning stretch was a seven-run inning from the Otters.

The Mud Monsters bullpen implosion featured four different arms, beginning with Forsyth, who surrendered a solo home run to Pierce to lead off the frame.

With the score now 11-7, Forsyth allowed back-to-back singles before Mississippi turned to Seth McCartney.

After working the count full to LG Castillo, McCartney issued a walk to load the bases.

Linscott followed with an RBI single before a TJ Salvaggio RBI groundout recorded the first out of the inning and cut the deficit to 11-9. Both runs were charged to Forsyth.

With runners still in scoring position, Jon Ponder singled home Castillo and Linscott to erase the deficit and tie the game at 11-11.

Braden Collett entered for McCartney with Ponder at first and walked the first batter he faced to put two aboard.

Amani Jones reached on a fielder’s choice for the second out of the inning, but with runners on the corners, Collett’s second walk loaded the bases and his third consecutive walk forced home the go-ahead run.

Southpaw Gage Bihm, Mississippi’s fourth pitcher of the inning, entered needing the final out.

Gonzalez, batting for the second time in the inning, hit a ground ball to Schield that was not fielded cleanly, allowing Evansville’s thirteenth run to score and giving the Otters a 13-11 lead.

Extra Innings

Otters claim the series

With the ghost runner slated to be Holt, manager Jay Pecci elected to pinch-run Jackson Nicklaus in the top of the tenth.

Mississippi could not bring home Nicklaus, and Chris Barraza entered looking to send the game to the eleventh.

With Evansville’s Robertson serving as the ghost runner, Barraza walked one but kept the Otters off the board to send the game into Mississippi’s first sudden-death extra-inning situation.

As the road team, the Mud Monsters started the eleventh with Semo at first base. If he came around to score, Mississippi would win. If Evansville held the scoreless tie, the Otters would claim victory.

Cerda got Fritz to ground into a double play for the first two outs before Reed grounded out to second, allowing Evansville to emerge victorious in both the game and the series.