O’Fallon, MO – The Evansville Otters fended off every River City Rascal comeback attempt and hung on to win 8-7 Saturday night at T.R. Hughes Ballpark.

Jonathan Miller (2-4) made the start for River City and fell into trouble with a loss of control in the first inning. With one out, Miller walked two and hit a batter to load the bases. Issac Omura singled in the only run of the inning to make it 1-0.

The Rascals responded with two runs off Otter starter Ricky Bauer in the second and third innings on Luke Barganier and Phil Laurent RBIs.

Evansville retook the lead in the fourth when the first of two costly errors by the Rascals allowed an extra run to score in a four run inning. That put the Otters ahead 5-2.

River City rallied again in the fifth to tie the score. Chris Raniere sacrificed a run home with a fly ball and then on a second run scoring hit from Barganier, Mike Sullivan’s throw to third went into the third base dugout, allowing another run to score.

But right back came the Otters. In the sixth, three unearned runs scored off Miller when a Jeff Miller throw from first went into left field in an attempt to turn a double play helped Evansville’s cause. Tyson Povey connected on a two run home run in the inning and the Otters lead 8-5.

A.J. Van Slyke hit his fifth home run and second in as many nights in the bottom of the sixth to cut it to one, but that is as close as the Rascals got, 8-7.

Jon Lewis earned his eighth save by pitching a scoreless ninth. Bauer (4-2) got the win going five innings, allowing five runs, three earned on eight hits. Miller suffered the loss going 5.2 innings while allowing eight runs, only four of which were earned. The loss was the first of the season for River City to Evansville.

Game two of the series between the Rascals (19-18) and the Otters (18-19) will be played at 6:05 p.m. Sunday night in O’Fallon. Sunday is Purina’s ‘Bark Fest’ sponsored by Schnucks will feature the Ultimate Air Dogs with the gates opening at 4:30 p.m.