HARTFORD, Conn. – Chavez Young homered for the seventh time this year, but the New Hampshire Fisher Cats (Toronto Blue Jays Double-A affiliate) fell to the Hartford Yard Goats (Colorado Rockies) 5-3 at Dunkin’ Donuts Park.
Elvis Luciano went one inning, as the New Hampshire (44-46) starter made his return from injury by striking out three in the bottom of the first.
Hartford (30-63) took the lead off of Nick Fraze (ND, 4.1 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 1 BB, 5 K) as Sean Bouchard (3-5, 4 RBI, 2 HR, 2R) hit a solo home run to make it 1-0 in the bottom of the third. New Hampshire answered in the top of the fourth, as Chavez Young (3-4, HR, 2B, 3 RBI) doubled home Vinny Capra to tie the game at one.
Hartford would retake the lead on Sean Bouchard’s second solo home run of the game, making it 2-1 in the bottom of the fifth. Chavez Young, however, would hit a two-run home run in the top of the sixth to make the score 3-2 in favor of New Hampshire. It was Young’s third home run of the series and his ninth runs batted in since Tuesday.
Hartford scored three runs in the bottom of the eighth off of Brody Rodning (L, 3-4) and Graham Spraker, as Sean Bouchard again was the hero. The Yard Goats tied the game at 3 on a Matt McLaughlin single, before Sean Bouchard drove home a pair of runs on a single of his own to make it 5-3 Hartford.
The Yard Goats got excellent starting pitching from David Hill, who went five innings and gave up just four hits and one run. The win is credited to PJ Poulin, who improves to 1-1, and Reagan Todd picked up his sixth save of the season as he faced the minimum in the ninth.
Hartford snapped a seven-game losing streak with their win.
