Bottom of the Order Pushes Slammers Past Evansville

The Joliet Slammers (10-10) scored four runs in the eighth inning to take the lead for good in an 8-5 victory over the Evansville Otters (4-16) Saturday night.

Slammers’ starter Kevin Crimmel performed the ultimate tightrope walk in the game. An error and two walks loaded the bases for the Otters in the first inning. But Crimmel managed to get out of the inning thanks to huge strike-out.

Joliet rewarded his effort with a couple of runs in the second. With one down Kyle Maunus drew a walk. Back-to-back singles from Sean Estand and Brad Netzel loaded the bases. The number eight hitter Lee Rubin singled home a run and Ben Ferrell followed suit. On Ferrell’s single Netzel was thrown out at the plate but the damage was done as Joliet jumped out to the 2-0 lead.

The Otters got one back in the bottom half of the frame as P.J. Sequeira tripled and would score on a RBI ground-out.

Evansville got another man in scoring position in the third but would not score. Meanwhile Maunus crushed a mammoth solo homer in the fourth to make the score 3-1 Slammers. The Otters put two more runners in scoring position in the fourth but once again came up empty as Crimmel continued to get the job done.

The Otters finally got to Crimmel in the sixth inning though. Back-to-back singles from Mike Durant and Jonathan Waltenbury started the Otters’ rally. After a sacrifice bunt moved them over the Slammers brought in Jeremy Tietze. Sequeira greeted him with a single to score Durant and cut the Slammers’ lead to 3-2. A RBI grounder from Korby Mintken tied things at three.

In the seventh the Slammers took the lead thanks to some sloppy Evansville defense. With one away Rubin drew a walk. He would advance to second and with Kris Kasarjian at the plate Otters pitcher Jeremy Thorne uncorked a wild pitch. Rubin went to third and the throw from catcher Brett Chamberlain sailed into left field, scoring Rubin and giving Joliet the 4-3 edge.

Unfortunately Slammers’ pitcher Chuck Lukanen returned the favor in the bottom half of the frame. Greg Burns greeted him with a double. He would advance to third on a deep fly ball and scored on a wild pitch to tie the game at four.

But the Slammers pulled away in the eighth. Yasel Gutierrez hit a sharp liner to third and the ball was dropped. Sequeira compounded the fielding mistake with a throwing error as Gutierrez was able to advance all the way to second base. Bobby Leeper pinch ran and Erik Lis singled to right, putting runners at the corners.

That’s when Maunus came up large with another RBI. This time he singled in a run to give the Slammers a 5-4 edge. Thorne finally left the game as the Otters brought in Drew Erwin. One out later Netzel singled home another run as Lis came in to score. The bottom of the order kept doing work as Rubin singled in Maunus to extend the lead to 7-4. A Ben Ferrell RBI grounder completed the scoring for the Slammers.

Evansville got one back in the eighth against Lukanen but all that did was give Ryan Quigley the chance to nail down the save in the ninth.

He would do exactly that as Quigley picked up his sixth save of the season.

With the win the Slammers inched to within one game of the ThunderBolts in the East Division. They’ll send former major league pitcher Billy Petrick (1-3, 4.84 ERA) to the mound as they look to sweep the seasons series with Evansville. First pitch is at 1:05 p.m.