After Ashwin Stratton pitched a scoreless first inning, the Otters wasted no time grabbing the lead. Abel Aho led off with a walk and advanced to third on Stratton’s two strike single to right field. Stratton stole second base, and Cole Fronning earned a walk. With the bases loaded, Cole Knudson laced a single to drive in Aho and Stratton. As Knudson tried to advance to second, he was caught in a rundown. He was tagged out at first, but Fronning hustled around third and scored the third run of the inning.

The Otters scored again in the second. Brock Kotschevar led off the inning with a line drive double to the left centerfield gap. After advancing to third on a passed ball, Kotschevar scored on Jack Culbertson’s single to right. 

Those four runs were enough as the two Otter pitchers allowed only one run. Stratton pitched his best game of the year as he went five innings allowing one earned run on three hits. He didn’t allow a walk, and he struck out 12 Apollo batters to earn the win. Michael Maanum came in and pitched the last two scoreless innings to secure the save. Maanum gave up only one hit, while striking out two. He also didn’t allow any walks.

“With five games this week, we needed a strong pitching performance, and that’s what we got,” said Fergus Falls Head Coach Kevin Pearson. “Both Ashwin and Michael pounded the strike zone and attacked their hitters. To not allow one walk in a seven inning game was extremely impressive!  Six different guys had hits tonight, which was also good to see.”

The Otters have four more home games this week. They have a double header on Thursday against St. Cloud Tech starting at 4:00pm.  They play Little Falls at 12:00 noon on Friday, and finish the week with a 5:00pm game against Detroit Lakes after Little Falls and the Lakers square off at 2:30.