News
RECAP | Otters take series opener with full-team effort
August 21, 2026
EVANSVILLE, Ind. - The Evansville Otters (54-34) picked up an important series opening win against the Florence Y’alls (50-37) on Friday night, 9-5.
Ryan Wiltse got the bump for Evansville against Ryan Furey, who was making his second professional start for Florence.
The scoring started early in the first, the Y’alls bringing a run in to start the game. Evansville responded with four runs in the bottom half, as Blake Robertson, LG Castillo, Chris Kwitzer and Sam Linscott each brought in a run.
The Otters would extend the lead in the third inning with newcomer Cade Marquardt’s first Otters hit, which dropped in between three defenders in right field to score Kwitzer.
The Otters brought in two more in the fourth inning to make it 7-1.
Florence made things closer in the fifth with two runs, but Evansville scored one in each of the fifth and sixth innings to put them back up by six runs.
The Y’alls brought two more runs in to make it 9-5, but Alex Valdez and Junior Cerda would strike out the side in the eighth and ninth innings to give the Otters the win.
Evansville is now 54-34, winning the season-series against Florence and staying undefeated against them at home (4-0). They are now 3.5 games ahead of the Y’alls for the first Wild Card spot. With the Otters win, their magic number to clinch a spot in the 2026 Frontier League Playoffs dropped to eight.
Evansville looks to take another series against a division rival tomorrow against the Y’alls starting at 6:35 p.m. CT at EVSC’s Historic Bosse Field.
All games can be heard on 96.9 WYIR and the Otters Digital Network and can be viewed live on the Frontier League Network on HTN.
The Evansville Otters are the 2006 and 2016 Frontier League champions.
The Otters play all home games at EVSC’s Historic Bosse Field, located at 23 Don Mattingly Way in Evansville, Ind. Stay up to date with the Evansville Otters by visiting evansvilleotters.com, or follow the Otters on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
For more information, visit evansvilleotters.com or call (812) 435-8686.
