Wild Things on brink of elimination after being routed at Evansville
EVANSVILLE, Ind. – Sam Linscott went 4-for-5 with a home run and the Evansville Otters used a pair of five-run innings to pummel the Wild Things 12-3 Wednesday night and take a 2-0 lead in the best-of-5 Midwest Conference finals.
Evansville, which has scored 26 runs in the first two games of the series, can clinch a spot in the Frontier League finals Friday night when Game 3 is played at EQT Park.
The Otters led 2-1 before scoring five times in the fifth inning and adding five more in the sixth for a double-digit lead.
Jon Ponder and Linscott, the Nos. 7 and 8 hitters in the Evansville lineup, combined for eight RBI.
Linscott hit a solo homer leading off the third inning against Washington starter Kobe Foster that tied the score at 1-1. Linscott added an RBI double in the fourth inning that put Evansville ahead for good at 2-1.
Foster gave up seven hits and five runs in four-plus innings. The Frontier League Pitcher of the Year walked five.
Evansville outhit Washington, 17-4.
Winning pitcher Garrett Simpson went six innings, giving up three hits and two runs.
The Wild Things took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first when Miles Simington led off the game with a double and scored after groundouts by Kyle Edwards and Andrew Czech. Jeff Liquori hit a solo home run off Simpson in the seventh, and Czech had an RBI double in the eighth.