BOWIE, Md. – The New Hampshire Fisher Cats won’t return to Maryland again until 2019, and they now have bragging rights until then.
New Hampshire leaves Maryland with a 7-2 victory over Bowie in early action on Wednesday afternoon.
Bowie got off to an early lead, grabbing two runs in the first two innings. However, unlike the previous two games of the series, it was not a durable lead.
While Bowie’s Dean Kremer held New Hampshire’s lineup in check early on, but his offense couldn’t provide any more run support, leaving him vulnerable to a common refrain for the Fisher Cats this season: the big inning comeback.
On Wednesday, that bunch of runes came in the fourth, initiated by a leadoff single from Harold Ramirez. New Hampshire left the fourth with a tied contest and added another home run thanks to a two-run home run from Ramirez, his tenth of the year.
While New Hampshire’s bullpen made sure that the Ramirez blast would be all the Fisher Cats needed for the win, they’d add more runs in the eighth and ninth, including Cavan Biggio’s 85th RBI of the season. That puts him six RBI behind league leader Will Craig of Altoona and slightly ahead of the pace set by Eric Thames in 2010, the year of his franchise record 104 RBI.
Biggio also added two runs and a pair of walks while Ramirez led the way for New Hampshire with a 4-for-5 day. For Bowie, Craig Gentry and Marin Cervenka each grabbed a pair of hits in the loss.
Although it wasn’t a horrible outing for Kremer, he was saddled with the loss, leaving after six innings of work. Kremer, falling to 2-1 in the Eastern League this year, struck out nine, allowing four runs off five hits and two walks.
Newcomer Hector Perez left after the fourth inning, giving the win to Josh DeGraaf for his work in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings.
DeGraaf, now 6-5 on the year, allowed three hits in his performance, with no walks and a strikeout.
The Fisher Cats now head to Virginia for a contest with the Richmond Flying Squirrels. New Hampshire will send out T.J. Zeuch (7-4, 3.32 ERA) against Richmond’s Chase Johnson (1-2, 3.08 ERA).
