Six-run eighth sends Fisher Cats home with fifth straight loss

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Portland wore special jerseys on May 9, 2021 for Breast Cancer Awareness Day. Photo/Portland Sea Dogs Twitter

PORTLAND, MAINE – In baseball, it doesn’t matter how many hits a team gets, but when they get them. That adage was the case on Sunday afternoon as both the Portland Sea Dogs and New Hampshire Fisher Cats ended with eight hits each, but Portland notched a 12-6 victory.

Three of New Hampshire’s runs came in the first, thanks to RBI doubles from Jordan Groshans and Demi Orimoloye and a catcher interference call during Kevin Vicuña’s at-bat that allowed Orimoloye to come home.

The other three New Hampshire runs came in the sixth. There, Vicuña and Nick Podkul reached base on walks and later came home along with Reggie Pruitt on a Chavez Young double.

Otto Lopez also recorded a double, but the ‘Cats couldn’t manage any more scoring, ending with nine men left on base over the contest.

Despite this, the two teams finished seven innings knotted at six, with an eighth inning that saw 12 Portland batters coming to the plate and six of them earning walks proving to be the difference on the day.

At the plate for New Hampshire, Lopez and Orimoloye each ended with a pair of hits with Vicuña notching a pair of stolen bases.

On the mound, New Hampshire starting pitcher Zach Logue lasted 4 2/3 innings, striking out eight but also allowing a pair of home runs, including Johan Mieses’ third home run in as many days. Mieses would add another homer in the sixth off Jon Harris.

Emerson Jimenez (0-1) was the loser for New Hampshire, walking four of the six batters he faced in the eighth before making way for Connor Law. It would ultimately take a pitching appearance from third baseman Vinny Capra for the ‘Cats to get out of the inning, with Law walking four and giving up a double to Jack Lopez before getting the hook.

Dominic LoBrutto (1-0) was the winner, striking out two and giving up two New Hampshire hits over the seventh and eighth innings.

New Hampshire will seek to get out of their current five-game slide in Tuesday’s home opener in their first ever game against the Somerset Patriots. Simeon Woods Richardson (0-0, 2.25 ERA) will take the mound for a 6:35 p.m. first pitch.

About this Author

Andrew Sylvia

Assistant EditorManchester Ink Link

Born and raised in the Granite State, Andrew Sylvia has written approximately 10,000 pieces over his career for outlets across Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont. On top of that, he's a licensed notary and licensed to sell property, casualty and life insurance, he's been a USSF trained youth soccer and futsal referee for the past six years and he can name over 60 national flags in under 60 seconds according to that flag game app he has on his phone, which makes sense because he also has a bachelor's degree in geography (like Michael Jordan). He can also type over 100 words a minute on a good day.