The New Hampshire Fisher Cats won’t be returning to Virginia this season, and they leave on a high note.
New Hampshire took both games of their Thursday doubleheader against the Richmond Flying Squirrels, completing a three-game sweep of the Squirrels during their only trip to Richmond this year.
Ryan McBroom’s first inning single got the ‘Cats on the board quickly in game one, bringing Jonathan Davis around to score.
Richmond tied up the contest in the second, as Brandon Bednar came home on a fielding error, but they couldn’t take sole possession of the lead.
New Hampshire lit up incoming pitcher Tyler Cyr in the seventh with three hits and a walk that would send three more runs across the plate.
McBroom’s hit and those three late hits were all the Fisher Cats could muster off Richmond pitching, with starter Cory Taylor striking out four and walking five Fisher Cats batters during his six innings of work in the truncated seven inning contest.
Cyr (2-1) was credited with the loss, with Ryan Halstead getting the final out of the seventh for Richmond.
New Hampshire starting pitcher Conner Greene (3-5) also went six innings, allowing five Richmond hits, striking out three and walking four.
Jose Fernandez pitched a perfect seventh to get his fourth save of the year.
In Game Two, it was the Squirrels who got off to the early lead, getting two runs in the first and another in the fifth.
Just as in Game One, the Fisher Cats rallied in the seventh off two new Richmond pitchers, this time bringing four runs across the plate on four singles and a double from Davis.
Although Jarret Martin gave up the first three of those runs, it was Collin Balester (1-3) who got the loss after he gave up the final New Hampshire run, coming in for the final two hours of the inning.
In contrast, Richmond starting pitcher Matt Gage allowed just three hits over his six innings of work, striking out three and walking one.
New Hampshire starter Francisco Rios was pitch limited, continuing his slow return from injury. The win would go to returning Fisher Cat Kender Villegas (1-0). Villegas was briefly sent down to Dunedin to make way for former Fisher Cat pitcher John Stilson, who left Triple-A Buffalo on May 27 and returned there last Tuesday.
Andrew Guillotte had two of New Hampshire’s eight hits in the second game. For Richmond, Myles Schroder and Miguel Gomez also contributed two hits.
The sweep marks the Fisher Cats second series sweep so far this year, the first coming in mid-April in Hartford.
