Rock Cats win 6-3 in front of largest crowd in team history
August 24, 2009 - Eastern League (EL1)
New Britain Rock Cats News Release
New Britain, CT - Erik Lis' seventh inning home run capped off a 6-3 win over Reading that completed a four-game sweep of the Phillies before a sellout crowd of 7,791, the 21st sellout of the season. The Rock Cats (66-61) have won six straight and now hold a three-game lead over Trenton for the final playoff spot in the Northern Division.
The Rock Cats took advantage of a Reading miscue to start the bottom of the first. Leadoff man Brandon Roberts reached base safely on a fielding error by first baseman Kevin Mahar before Alejandro Machado drew a walk. Luke Hughes and Wilson Ramos were forced into fly outs, with Ramos' fly out to center allowing Roberts to move to third. Juan Portes then knocked in Roberts with a single to left field for a 1-0 lead.
In the next inning, the Cats struck again when Brian Dinkelman singled with one out and scored on a double by Yancarlos Ortiz. Hughes and Ramos added RBI singles to widen the gap, 4-0.
Ryan Mullins kept the R-Phils off the board until the fourth inning when Tim Kennelly's base hit to right scored Neil Sellers. Readin tacked on two more runs in the top of the seventh - including an RBI single by top prospect Domonic Brown - that brought the Phillies within one run.
In the bottom of the inning, Portes drew a two-out walk before Lis slugged a home run - his team-leading 16th of the season - over the right field wall.
Mullins (10-10) finished with three runs on 12 hits through 6 1/3 innings. Kyle Waldrop tossed two shutout innings in relief before giving way to Spencer Steedley and Loek Van Mil, who each retired a batter in the ninth to close out the game. Van Mil picked up his first save.
Yohan Flande (3-4) suffered the loss for Reading.
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