The River City Rascals (45-38) started their season long nine game road trip with a setback against the Evansville Otters (44-37), 10-3, Friday night in front of 6, 137 fans at Bosse Field in Evansville, Indiana.
Evansville had the crowd energized from the start as starting pitcher Luc Rennie struck out a pair and stranded two on base in the top of the first and his offense jumped out to an early 4-0 lead in bottom of half of the frame.
Ryan Long led off with a single against Rascals starter Tim Koons and then 2016 Frontier League MVP Josh Allen clubbed a two-run home run over the left field wall to put the Otters on top 2-0.
John Schultz and Brandon Soat followed up with RBI singles and the Otters held a 4-0 lead heading into the top of the second inning.
The Rascals retaliated with a solid inning of their own and came within a run against the opponent’s starter Luc Rennie.
In total, the Rascals sent eight batters to the plate and had the bases loaded with no outs after a single from Paul Kronenfeld and a pair of walks.
Rennie battled back with a swinging strikeout for out number one but the Rascals didn’t go down easy after that and three straight batters recorded a RBI to pull within a run.
Brandon Thomas drove in Josh Silver with a RBI single for the Rascals first run, Johnny Morales followed with a sacrifice fly and then Josh Ludy continued the offensive stanza with a RBI single.
However, Ludy’s RBI single would be the final RBI of the night for the Rascals and they would go on to surrender six unanswered runs through the remainder of the game.
The Otters scored a pair of runs via three straight hits in the fifth to chase Tim Koons out of the game and he would go on to take the loss, his fifth of the year.
In the defeat, he was tagged for six runs, earned, on nine hits and struck out one.
Koons left in a 6-3 game with one out and a runner on third and Manager Steve Brook called upon Tyler Hunt for his Rascals debut to get out of the jam and he did with a shallow flyout and a pop out in foul territory.
Hunt did allow a run though in the bottom of the sixth inning via a Josh Allen sacrifice fly to put his team down 7-3 and the final three runs for the Otters came against southpaw Anthony Paesano in the bottom of the seventh inning.
Clint Freeman was called upon for the bottom of the eighth and he threw a scoreless frame to hold the Otters at their 10-3 advantage.
Luc Rennie got the win, his sixth of the year and allowed three runs, earned, on six hits. The right-hander walked seven and struck out seven.
Fourth year Rascal Josh Ludy had the most offensive success against him, reaching three times with a hit and a pair of walks. Ludy also drew a walk against reliever Connor Little in the top of the seventh.
Paul Kronenfeld and Brandon Thomas each tallied two hits and Mike Jurgella and Jason Merjano notched one.
The Rascals look to even up the series Saturday night against the Otters and southpaw Hector Hernandez is set to take the mound.
First pitch is scheduled for 6:35 p.m.
