Washington Shuts Out Evansville in Season Opener
EVANSVILLE, In. (May 12) – The Washington Wild Things used four pitchers to silence the bats of the Evansville Otters in the 2023 season opener Friday at Bosse Field in Evansville. In a rematch of the 2018 season opener, Washington scored seven times but, unlike that 2018 contest, which ended 7-4, didn’t allow a run tonight, taking the game 7-0.
Kobe Foster worked the first four innings of the game and fanned five. He allowed four hits and walked a batter before giving way to the bullpen. Greg Loukinen pitched the next two innings of the shutout. He allowed a hit, walked one and struck a batter out. Zach Blankenship worked a scoreless, one-two-three frame in his pro debut and Justin Showalter worked the final two frames of the game, yielding a walk and striking out three.
The scoring started in the first inning for Washington, as Tristan Peterson hit a one-out double to left before scoring on a two-out double by Melvin Novoa to put Washington ahead. Ian Walters added a two-run double in the fourth before Washington scored three times in the fifth. In that inning, Wagner Lagrange collected his first hit and RBI of the campaign on a line drive to bring home Nick Gotta then Peterson and Lagrange scored on consecutive sacrifice flies by Andrew Czech and Anthony Brocato, bringing it to 6-0. Washington scored its final run in the sixth on an RBI single by Gotta.
In all, Washington collected nine hits versus five for the Otters. Loukinen earned the victory in relief, his first as a pro and in his Wild Things’ debut. Tim Holdgrafer suffered the loss for the Otters after allowing six runs (five earned) in four innings.
Tomorrow, the series shifts to the middle game at 7:35/6:35 p.m. CT. Angel Landazuri and Zach Smith will pitch in a matchup of righties. Landazuri will make his Wild Things’ debut on the hill. Watch the game on FloSports at bit.ly/flosportswt or on the FloSports app (subscription required).
