HARTFORD, Conn. – The New Hampshire Fisher Cats began the post-Vlad era in convincing fashion.
Forrest Wall scored three runs and Bo Bichette drove in five runs in a thoroughly dominating 12-2 road victory over the Hartford Yard Goats on Saturday night.
Wall led off the game with a first pitch single and the tone was set from there, with New Hampshire putting up four runs before the end of the first frame, a lead they would not relinquish. Still, they had no qualms with adding to that lead.
Three more runs in the fourth, another three in the seventh and two more off a Bichette homer in the eighth thrown in for good measure proved more than enough on a day when the Fisher Cats pitching was ultimately as effective as the hitting.
Josh DeGraaf scattered six hits over six innings of work, a blemish marred by only one Hartford run, which came in the fourth.
DeGraaf climbed to 4-5 for his efforts, with Justin Dillon and Andrew Case combining to allow just three more hits over the final three innings of the contest.
Hartford starting pitcher Frank Duncan left after the fourth, allowing eight hits and three walks. He falls to 1-2 on the year.
At the plate, every Hartford batter except for Dom Nuñez had at least one hit, but they couldn’t string them together, something the Fisher Cats had no problem with. Bichette and Wall each had three hits, with Jon Berti and Santiago Espinal also contributing two apiece. Bichette also joined Berti in adding two runs while Espinal and Harold Ramirez ended the contest with two RBI each.
With the two runs, Bichette increased his league lead in that category to three over the 69 of Binghamton’s Levi Michael. He also struck two doubles during the contest, giving him a three RBI lead over the 27 of Bowie’s Corbin Joseph.
The series concludes on Sunday with a 5:05 p.m. contest as New Hampshre’s T.J. Zeuch (6-4, 3.54 ERA) takes on Hartford’s Evan Grills (2-3, 3.57 ERA).
