Slammers Smack Around Hapless Otters

The Joliet Slammers (8-7) scored eight runs in the fourth inning, capped off by a Yasel Gutierrez grand slam as they swept the Evansville Otters (2-13) with an 11-6 victory Sunday afternoon.

Things weren’t looking so good early though for the Slammers.

Evansville jumped on starter Kevin Crimmel (2-0) in the second for five runs. It all started with a Mike Durant double. After Jamar Walton singled him to third, Nick Ebert hit a line shot to left. New left fielder Thomas Creal tried to make a diving catch but the ball scooted under him and rolled all the way to the wall. The two-RBI double made it 2-0 Otters. One out later Brett Chamberlain singled in the runner and Korby Mintken provided the exclamation point with a two-run bomb.

Gutierrez started the fourth inning with a sharp single. Then Lis stepped to the plate and smacked his first homer of the afternoon to cut the Evansville lead to 5-2. Nick Ochoa drew a walk and Brad Netzel singled to put runners at first and second with nobody out and two already in. But two straight fielder’s choices put runners at the corners with two down. Creal made up for his earlier defensive mistake with a single up the gut to drive in a run and make the score 5-3. Bobby Leeper followed with a RBI single of his own and Hector Pellot drew a walk.

The 10th man to come to the plate in the frame was Gutierrez, who started it all with his single. He worked the count full and got a fastball and demolished the pitch for a grand salami and just like that it was 8-5 Slammers on top.

Crimmel settled down and went five innings, giving up the five runs on nine hits, walking one and striking-out four. Jeremy Tietze took over in the sixth and gave up a run on a Korby Mintken sacrifice fly.

The Slammers responded by tallying two insurance runs in the seventh on a two-RBI single from Hector Pellot.

Lis put a third exclamation point on the evening with his second homer, this one a solo shot that’s probably still rolling down the street beyond the right field wall, in the eighth.

The enormously entertaining game set season highs for hits (15) and runs (11) for the Slammers as they move to one game over .500 on the season.