HARTFORD, Conn. – The New Hampshire Fisher Cats have now lost seven straight games against the Hartford Yard Goats, falling 4-3 on Thursday night.
Hartford struck first with a pair of runs in the first inning with a homer from Vince Fernandez, but Kevin Smith’s double in the third sparked a two-run rally that kept the game deadlocked until the sixth.
There, Nash Knight’s sac fly RBI brought Brock Lundquist across the plate, giving the Fisher Cats a lead until Fernandez hit another homer in the bottom of the sixth.
Fernandez came through one more time in the eighth, with a single that put the winning run just 90 feet away from home. That tying run, represented by Colton Welker, came home an at-bat later off Alan Trejo’s single.
Ben Bowden’s perfect ninth sealed the victory, giving him his 13th save of the year.
The win went to reliever Jordan Foley, facing the minimum amount of batters in the seventh and eighth, rising to 2-4 on the year.
Jonathan Cheshire (1-1) was the loser, representing the Fisher Cats in the seventh and eighth, allowing three hits while striking out two.
Both teams combined for 23 hits, with Fernandez (3), Trejo (2) and Vance Vizcaino (2) grabbing multi-hit games for Hartford while Smith (3), Christian Williams (3), Lundquist (2), Chad Spanberger (2) did the same for New Hampshire.
On Friday night, both teams return to Dunkin Donuts Park for a 7:05 start. Zach Logue (2-2, 3.60 ERA) takes the mount for New Hampshire against Hartford’s Rico Garcia (4-0, 1.69 ERA).