The Owensboro RiverDawgs are gearing up for playoff baseball, but came home first off of a road trip to wrap up the regular season with a 3-2 victory over the Madisonville Miners.
The RiverDawgs got things going by putting a run on the board in the bottom of the first thanks to a two-out base knock.
PJ Barry nearly kicked things off with a bang, tripling before being thrown out at the plate trying to score.
Ben Clark followed with a double, before Dustin Jeffers later singled to give Owensboro an early 1-0 lead.
Another RBI double came from Kyle Hogwood in the bottom of the third, driving in Paul Cuomoulos to make it a 2-0 ballgame. But Madisonville quickly responded.
Justin Ramirez led off the top of the fourth with a walk, before Reed Latimer sent a longshot to left field to knot things up at 2-2.
Owensboro nearly caused some serious damage offensively in the bottom of the fifth, as a leadoff single and a string of walks loaded the bases with one out in the inning.
Lucas Gulczynski flew out to right field to reclaim a 3-2 lead for the RiverDawgs with two outs. Cameron Nichols struck out the next at-bat, thus ending the major scoring threat.
While Owensboro was holding onto a narrow lead thanks to some steady offense, Westin Stutzman was dealing.
Stutzman went seven innings, allowing two runs on five hits, while striking out six. Aric Lyons followed with a shutout inning of relief in the eighth, sending the RiverDawgs into the ninth still out in front with a 3-2 lead.
Logan King was pulled after giving up a leadoff hit to Madisonville in the top of the ninth, when Drake Hamil came in to replace him for matchup purposes.
Hamil proceeded to walk the first batter he faced, putting runners on first and second with no outs for the Miners.
However, Hamil forced two straight groundouts before sitting down Griffin Adkins swinging in order to secure the 3-2 victory in the regular season finale for the RiverDawgs.
Owensboro now awaits its first postseason game against the Dubois County Bombers that will start at 6:30 p.m. on Friday.
