KINSTON, N.C. (September 2, 2026) – For the second consecutive night, the Down East Bird Dawgs walked off the Evansville Otters, this time on a Colby Backus error-aided score in the bottom of the ninth to cap a dramatic 8-7 victory at Historic Grainger Stadium Wednesday night, winning their third straight game and improving to 47-51 on the season.

Evansville grabbed a 1-0 lead in the first on a Logan Brown error-aided run before Lyle Miller-Green drove in Stephen DiTomaso — who extended his league-leading on-base streak to 53 games — to tie it at 1-1.

Backus put Down East in front with a solo homer in the second before the Otters tied it again in the fifth on a passed ball.

Miller-Green answered with an RBI single to make it 3-2 before Evansville went back in front in the sixth on two more unearned runs.

Juan Garcia doubled in a run and Trey Law added an RBI single to put the Bird Dawgs back ahead 5-4, but the Otters surged again in the seventh as Brown tripled in a run, Jon Ponder hit a sacrifice fly, and Chris Kwitzer scored on a wild pitch to take a 7-5 lead.

Down East tied it in the bottom half on an Ali LaPread sacrifice fly and a Garcia RBI single before Backus scored the winning run on an error in the ninth to set the final at 8-7.

Axel Andueza started for Down East, allowing two unearned runs on four hits over five innings with four strikeouts and two walks. Kendall Lyons (3-1) earned the win, allowing one hit over 1⅔ innings with two strikeouts and one walk.

Colby Morse started for Evansville, allowing three runs on four hits over 4⅓ innings with six walks and no strikeouts. Alex Valdez (5-4) took the loss, surrendering one hit while recording just two outs.

The Bird Dawgs (47-51) look for a fourth straight win Thursday, September 3, at 7 p.m. ET at Historic Grainger Stadium.