Fisher Cats’ bats come up clutch late against Portland

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Spencer Horwitz on April 12, 2022. Photo/Andrew Sylvia

MANCHESTER, N.H. – If Thursday’s contest at Northeast Delta Dental Stadium was six innings, it would have been a victory for the Portland Sea Dogs. But it was not six innings.

After being utterly dominated by Sea Dogs starting pitcher Chris Murphy for 6 1/3 innings, the New Hampshire Fisher Cats battled back to defeat the Sea Dogs in ten innings, 8-7.

Murphy allowed just one hit before leaving in the seventh, exiting what appeared to be a comfortable 5-0 lead for the visitors. However, Murphy’s final batter faced was Spencer Horwitz, who walked and would quickly move to third off a John Aiello double before coming home on a wild pitch by reliever Oddanier Mosqueda.

New Hampshire would even up the contest in the bottom of the ninth as Orelvis Martinez’ leadoff double marked five straight batters reaching base for the Fisher Cats, capped by Luis De Los Santos’ third home run of the year.

Portland put up two in the top of the tenth, first off Izzy Wilson’s RBI double to left and later thanks to a throwing error by Martinez that allowed Wilson to score.

However, Portland’s pair of runs would not be enough. Four straight hits gave the Fisher Cats the offense they’d need to finally take the lead, with Spencer Horwitz’ 3-1 line drive single to left scoring Tanner Morris and clinching the victory.

Aiello, Martinez and Rafael Lantigua each ended with two hits for the ‘Cats, overcoming a four-error performance in the field.

Mike Ellenbest (1-0) was the winning pitcher for New Hampshire’s pitching by committee approach, with the Fisher Cats sending out five pitch-count limited hurlers during the contest, a sharp contrast to Murphy’s 101-pitch start for Portland.

They’d combine to allow nine Portland hits and eight Portland walks while striking out ten. Due to the errors, only three of Portland’s seven runs were earned.

The teams return for a 603 Day contest starting at 6:03 p.m., with Paxton Schultz (3-4, 5.74 ERA) starting for New Hampshire against a starter yet-to-be-named for Portland.

About this Author

Andrew Sylvia

Assistant EditorManchester Ink Link

Born and raised in the Granite State, Andrew Sylvia has written approximately 10,000 pieces over his career for outlets across Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont. On top of that, he's a licensed notary and licensed to sell property, casualty and life insurance, he's been a USSF trained youth soccer and futsal referee for the past six years and he can name over 60 national flags in under 60 seconds according to that flag game app he has on his phone, which makes sense because he also has a bachelor's degree in geography (like Michael Jordan). He can also type over 100 words a minute on a good day.