Slammers Find Some Relief Against Evansville

The Joliet Slammers’ bullpen tossed five scoreless innings and Erik Lis drove in two runs as they knocked off the Evansville Otters by a final score of 5-2 Friday night.

Evansville got on the board first as they loaded the bases with only one away. A Korby Mintken fielder’s choice made the score 1-0 Otters on top. Slammers’ starter Andrew Moss worked around any further trouble when Joe Spiers flew out to right to end the frame.

That would be the last lead of the game for Evansville.

Kris Kasarjian smacked a one-out double in the third. Then with two down Erik Lis came up big with a RBI single to tie it at one. A wild pitch moved him to second and Kyle Maunus singled in the go-ahead run.

Brad Netzel got things going in the fourth with a single. A two-base throwing error on a pick-off attempt moved him around to third and Ben Hewett singled him home.

The Otters chased Moss in the fifth inning. Mintken drew a lead-off base-on-balls. He would steal second and Spiers singled him to third. After Greg Burns drew a walk to load the bases; manager Bart Zeller decided to make a pitching change. Moss got ejected as he walked off the mound arguing with the umpire.

Jeremy Tietze entered the game and got the first batter he faced to fly out. A run did score on the play but Tietze got out of the inning without any more runs scoring. He was sensational out of the bullpen, retiring all nine batters he faced on the way to the victory.

Joliet nursed the 3-2 lead until the eighth inning when some small ball came up large. Sean Estand singled to start the frame. After Brad Netzel walked, Ben Hewett moved the runners over with a sacrifice bunt. Ben Ferrell executed a perfect suicide squeeze and it was 4-2 Slammers.

One more insurance run crossed the plate in the ninth. With one away Josh Flores, in his first game back off the DL, tripled. Lis followed with his second RBI of the night as he singled Flores home.

Joliet native Ryan Quigley worked around a couple of baserunners in the ninth to earn his fifth save of the season.

With the win the Slammers move to within 1.5 games of the ThunderBolts for first place in the East Division. They take on Evansville again Saturday night as Kevin Crimmel (2-0, 3.18 ERA) heads to the mound.