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Early Lead Holds up for Portland

April 12, 2010 - Eastern League (EL1)
New Britain Rock Cats News Release


NEW BRITAIN, CT - Portland took advantage of another shaky opening inning by New Britain as the Sea Dogs put up four runs in the first and never looked back en route to an 8-2 victory over the Rock Cats on Monday night.

Ryan Kalish opened the game with a single Nate Spears followed with a one-out base hit to put runners on the corners. Luis Exposito delivered a sacrifice fly to left field that plated Kalish for the first run of the game. Rock Cats starter Deolis Guerra then dished up back-to-back RBI doubles to Yamaico Navarro and Ray Chang. Jose Iglesias tacked on an RBI single to knock in Chang for the 4-0 advantage before Guerra retired the next two batters to stop the bleeding.

Portland's Casey Kelly - making his much acclaimed Double-A debut - allowed two base hits to Steve Singleton and Rene Tosoni in the bottom of the inning but escaped the early jam.

In the bottom of the second, Joe Benson led of with a walk and an error by Iglesias at shortstop allowed Whit Robbins to reach base safely. With one out, Ben Revere singled to load the bases. Kelly unleashed a wild pitch that allowed Benson to cross home plate to put the Rock Cats on the board, 4-1.

Guerra settled down to retire nine straight batters, including the final two outs in the first, before an error by third baseman Juan Portes allowed Iglesias to reach base safely with one out in the fourth. Jason Place knocked him in with a triple to center field to tack on another Sea Dogs' run.

Kelly - the Red Sox' number two prospect overall and top pitching prospect - left the game after just two innings of work due to a low pitch count. The 20-year-old allowed three hits and one unearned run while walking one and striking out two.

Portland's Eammon Portice came on in relief and retired the first 11 batters he faced.before Chris Parmelee launched his second home run of the young season over the right field wall in the sixth inning. Portice (1-0) limited the Rock Cats to two hits while striking out four in four innings out of the bullpen.

Guerra (0-1) allowed five runs (4 ER) on six hits with no walks through five innings before he gave way to the bullpen. The Sea Dogs tacked on three more runs in the seventh against reliever Chris Province, including a two-run double by Chang.

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