The New Hampshire Fisher Cats couldn’t continue their winning streak on Memorial Day, falling to the Reading Fightin’ Phils and the bat of slugger Scott Kingery, 4-2.
Reading scored two runs in the first inning for the second day in a row, again beginning with a home run.
This time it was from Kingery, who now has hit exactly half of his league leading 16 home runs off New Hampshire pitching. Osmel Aguila brought home Carlos Tocci for the second run.
The Fisher Cats tied it up in the fifth with a pair of RBI singles from Jonathan Davis and Richard Urena, but Reading would get the lead back in the seventh. There, Kingery came across the plate once again, this time on an Andrew Pullin sac fly.
Mitch Walding’s double in the eighth brought in Angelo Mora for the final run of the day.
Kingery had three of Reading’s eight hits, and Chace Numata also contributed a pair of hits toward that total, including a double.
On the other side, Andrew Guillotte continued his hot streak at the plate, going 2-for-4. Derrick Loveless also contributed a 2-for-4 day, including New Hampshire’s only double of the contest.
Jon Harris escaped yet another loss, scattering five hits over six innings, with seven strikeouts and a walk. Instead, the loss went to returning Fisher Cat John Stilson, who earned demotion from Buffalo earlier in the week.
Stilson, a member of the 2012 and 2013 Fisher Cats, gave up Reading’s three other hits over two innings of work, striking out two and walking two.
Joey DeNato recorded an out in the sixth and another in the seventh to improve his record to 3-1 on the year. Colton Murray limited the Fisher Cats to just one hit after that, grabbing the final eight outs of the game to get his first save of the year.
New Hampshire now heads to Harrisburg, beginning with a 6 p.m. start on Tuesday. Conner Greene (1-4, 3.96 ERA) takes the mound for the Fisher Cats against the Senators’ Austen Willliams (1-5, 7.17 ERA).