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MANCHESTER, N.H. – A season-high four home runs brought the New Hampshire Fisher Cats a 9-4 victory over the Binghamton Rumble Ponies on Thursday night.
Six of New Hampshire’s nine runs came off the home runs, with Kevin Smith collecting solo shots in the fourth and fifth, Chad Spanberger adding a two-run bomb in the fifth as well and Riley Adams smashing a two-run blast in the third.
The other three runs came during an eighth inning that saw eight men come to the plate for New Hampshire, with Adams, Spanberger and Cullen Large all collecting RBI singles.
Meanwhile, New Hampshire’s quartet of pitchers scattered 11 hits, giving up runs to Austin Bossart’s RBI single in the second, Quinn Brodey’s RBI single in the fifth, and Dustin Houle’s two-run home run in the eighth.
William Ouellette got the win for New Hampshire, climbing to 2-2 on the year thanks to his three innings of middle relief.
Tony Dibrell was the loser for Binghamton, falling to 0-7 despite seven strikeouts in four innings of work.
At the plate, Smith led the way for New Hampshire, going 3-for-4 with a pair of RBI and a pair of runs, also walking once.
Spanberger got two walks, with two hits and two RBI as Large, Adams and Logan Warmoth also had two hits for New Hampshire.
Despite the win, a victory by the Trenton Thunder earlier in the night eliminates the Fisher Cats from playoff contention if the Reading Fightin’ Phils can emerge as second half Eastern Division victors.
Under Eastern League rules instituted this year, when a team has the best record in the first half and the second half the season, as Reading is currently poised to do, the second playoff spot goes to the team with the next best full-season record.
After Thursday night, New Hampshire sits 11 ½ games behind Trenton in the full-season standings with only 11 games left to play.
New Hampshire remains 8 ½ games behind Reading following their win on Thursday, meaning that the Fisher Cats will be completely eliminated with any combination of three Reading wins or three New Hampshire losses.
