Good pitching may beat good hitting, but the fate of Ryan Borucki on Friday night proved that even great pitching requires at least some hitting.
The New Hampshire Fisher Cats hurler pitched a gem but came out with 1-0 loss to the Binghamton Rumble Ponies in the second game this week between the two teams at NYSEG Stadium.
Borucki (0-1) allowed just three hits in seven innings of work, two of them coming in the second inning. During that stretch, David Thompson’s 22nd double of the year brought home Tomas Nido from first, giving the home team the only run they’d need.
Excluding those two hits, Nido’s single in the seventh and a walk to Luis Guillorme in the third, Borucki had a perfect game.
To date, there has only been one perfect game in Fisher Cats history: a seven-inning shortened performance by Jamie Vermilyea on June 28, 2004 against New Britain.
Binghamton’s P.J. Conlon was almost as masterful, going 6 2/3 innings and giving up just four hits and three walks in the pitchers’ duel. Conlon (8-7) also struck out three Fisher Cats in the effort, his fourth straight outing of more than 100 pitches.
Tyler Bashor pitched the ninth to get his seventh save of the year while Tim Peterson bridged the gap between the two Binghamton pitchers to get his first hold of the year.
Neither Binghamton reliever allowed a hit, and New Hampshire’s Dusty Issacs also kept the Ponies hitless in his inning relieving Borucki, striking out two men in the process.
New Hampshire didn’t get past second base during the contest, but Emilio Guerrero extended his hitting streak to 12 consecutive games with a double off the left field wall in the seventh. That ties a team season high set by Tim Lopes earlier this week.
The series continues on Saturday at 7:05 p.m. as New Hampshire’s Jon Harris (5-9, 5.02 ERA) takes on a starter yet to be named for Binghamton.
