MANCHESTER, N.H. – The first multi-home run game of Cavan Biggio’s career highlighted another offensive masterpiece for the New Hampshire Fisher Cats, powering the Fisher Cats’ 14-3 victory over the Richmond Flying Squirrels on Wednesday.
New Hampshire began their first time at the plate with doubles from Andrew Guillotte and Bo Bichette, kick-starting a seven-run first inning that saw 11 men come to bat.
Biggio then added his 22nd home run in the year, a solo shot coming in the second, to move back into a deadlock with Akron’s Bobby Bradley in the race to become Eastern League home run king. Although Bradley later added a home run of his own to keep the tie intact by the end of the evening, Biggio briefly regained the league lead in the third with a two-run show that brought Bichette home.
New Hampshire added another five runs in the fifth, building a lead that would be far too much for Richmond to overcome. The Squirrels did manage to string together two of their four hits on the day in the sixth, which along with two consecutive walks, gave them a three-run consolation rally. However, that would be all for Richmond, which recorded only more hit for the rest of the contest.
Richmond’s Ryan Howard did finish with two of those four hits for the visitors, an admirable performance easily overlooked by New Hampshire’s massive output.
The Fisher Cats tied their season high in hits and runs on Wednesday, also setting a new 2018 record with seven doubles overall, with Guillotte returning later in the first to hit his second double of that inning alone.
Every New Hampshire batter had at least one hit except for Jon Berti and Harold Ramirez, with the Fisher Cats getting two-hit days from Ryan Hissey and Santiago Espinal alongside three-hit days from Guillotte, Bichette, Biggio and Forest Wall.
On the mound, it was a day Richmond starting pitcher Mike Connolly will hope to forget. He lasted just two innings, allowing eight runs off eight hits and a walk, leaving with only one strikeout.
Conversely, Jon Harris had an exceptional day that was somewhat overshadowed by his teammates’ offensive excellence. Harris lasted seven innings, accumulating six strikeouts with only the sixth inning rally tarnishing his outing.
With the result, Harris climbs to 9-4 while Connolly falls to 3-3.
The series concludes on Thursday with a 7:05 p.m. contest between New Hampshire’s Jordan Romano (10-4, 3.40 ERA) and Richmond’s Conner Menez (3-3, 3.57 ERA).
