BINGHAMTON, NY – The New Hampshire Fisher Cats have not lost two games in a row this season coming into Tuesday, and that streak is still alive following Tuesday’s contest against the Binghamton Rumble Ponies.
New Hampshire defeated the Ponies by a tally of 9-4, their second highest offensive output during a season where they currently lead the league in team batting average, slugging percentage and on-base percentage, while narrowly lagging behind the leaders in virtually every other offensive category.
A leadoff home run by Jonathan Davis in the first started things off for the ‘Cats, with Bo Bichette following Davis’ blast to left center with a triple. Bichette would eventually come around to score and New Hampshire almost made it three runs in the first inning, squandering Cavan Biggio’s sixth double of the year.
Davis would bring in another run in the second, this time off a grounder that allowed Andrew Guillotte to come home.
Binghamton would bring the game within a run thanks to Levi Michael’s second home run of the series, but the Cats would take those two runs back in the top of the sixth, responding to Binghamton’s run in the bottom of the sixth by finally putting the game out of reach in the seventh.
There, Davis added his third RBI of the night, a sacrifice fly that followed Patrick Cantwell’s triple, allowing Cantwell to come home.
Bichette followed Davis with another triple and the Fisher Cats would add three more runs on a combination of two singles and the second wild pitch of the night allowed by Binghamton pitching.
Michael would give Binghamton one last run in the eighth, but it was too little, too late.
With the win, the Fisher Cats climb to 11-1 in games where they score first, 10-0 in games where they lead after seven innings and 12-5 overall, currently the best record in the Eastern League.
For the eighth time this season, New Hampshire also ended night with 10 or more hits, with every Fisher Cat batter other than Juan Kelly and Max Pentecost getting at least one hit.
Binghamton also had a good night when it came to hits, if not runs, with Peter Alonso, Kevin Taylor and Tim Tebow ending the night with two hits each, with Tebow also adding a pair of walks.
Jordan Romano (3-0) left after 5 2/3 innings of work, allowing three runs off four hits and four walks, striking out four Binghamton batters.
Andrew Church (0-3) lasted 6 1/3 innings, giving up six earned runs off nine hits and hitting two batters before leaving the contest.
The rubber match of the series comes on Wednesday night at 6:35 as Nick Tepesch (1-2, 5.87 ERA) takes the mound for New Hampshire against Rumble Pony righthander Nabil Crismatt (2-1, 1.10 ERA).
The Fisher Cats return to New Hampshire on Friday for a six-game homestand against the Trenton Thunder and the Reading Fightin’ Phils.