Amalfi Faces Jacobs as Cats Eye Third Straight Win
EL New Hampshire Fisher Cats

Amalfi Faces Jacobs as Cats Eye Third Straight Win

Published on August 20, 2025 under Eastern League (EL)
New Hampshire Fisher Cats News Release


The New Hampshire Fisher Cats (19-26, 48-66) and the Akron RubberDucks (24-22, 67-50) continue their six-game set with another 6:35 PM EDT first pitch at Canal Park on Wednesday night.

LAST NIGHT

Despite going into a 1-hour, 20-minute rain delay after four innings, the Fisher Cats held onto their early win to down Akron, 5-1, on Tuesday night. In his first appearance for New Hampshire since May 24, Bobby Milacki started with four scoreless innings and fired just 42 pitches.

Offensively, the Fisher Cats were led by Victor Arias, Jackson Hornung and Charles McAdoo, who combined for four of New Hampshire's seven hits. Arias went 2-for-5 and extended his hit streak to five games. Hornung drove in Arias with a double in the top of the first inning and collected another RBI in the top of the second.

Two of New Hampshire's five runs were scored on an Akron fielding error in the top of the eighth inning to finalize the score at 5-1.

Reliever Johan Simon (W, 1-0) struck out four batters in two scoreless innings to pick up his first career Double-A win.

PITCHING MATCHUP

Alex Amalfi (5-7, 5.14 ERA) takes the mound for his seventh start of the season on Wednesday night. Each of Amalfi's three appearances in August have been starts, going 0-1 with a 5.59 earned run average over 9-2/3 innings pitched. He fired four scoreless, one-hit innings in game two of a doubleheader in Chesapeake on August 2, before surrendering five runs against Reading on August 9. His last start was in Binghamton, where Amalfi allowed one run on five hits and recorded a new season-high six punchouts over 2-1/3 frames of work. Amalfi leads all active Fisher Cats' arms with 81 strikeouts across 61-1/3 innings pitched. The Ashland, Massachusetts, native had finished up his junior year at UMass Boston before joining the Blue Jays organization in 2022. Amalfi, 24, became the third player in the UMass Boston program's 43-year history to sign an MLB contract. Currently in his fourth season of professional baseball, Amalfi has climbed from Single-A Dunedin in 2022 and 2023, spent the 2024 campaign with High-A Vancouver and broke camp with New Hampshire in 2025.

Akron sends right-hander Zach Jacobs (2-2, 3.99 ERA) to the hill for his third start and 32nd appearance for the Ducks this season. Jacobs has worked primarily as a bullpen and long-relief arm for Akron, with his last start being June 21 in Portland. In two starts, Jacobs is 0-1 with a 10.13 earned run average across 5-1/3 innings pitched. As a reliever, Jacobs owns a 2-1 record with a 3.35 earned run average in 29 appearances out of the RubberDucks' bullpen. The San Dimas, California native is in his fourth season of professional baseball after being drafted by the Guardians in the 18th round of the 2022 MLB Draft. After spending three years at UC Riverside, Jacobs continued his career in the Arizona Complex League at the end of the 2022 campaign. From there, Jacobs joined Single-A Lynchburg in 2023 before heading to High-A Lake County in 2024. Jacobs was a part of Cleveland's Spring Breakout team in 2025 and broke camp with Triple-A Columbus. After making one relief appearance for the Clippers on March 29, Jacobs was assigned to Double-A Akron. Wednesday night will be Jacobs' first career appearance against New Hampshire.

THIS DAY IN FISHER CATS HISTORY

August 20, 2010 - The Fisher Cats open a three-game series with New Britain with a 7-1 win in Manchester. Randy Boone threw a complete-game two-hitter over the Rock Cats, striking out six batters. Both New Britain hits came in the top of the first, leading to a run before New Hampshire took control with four runs in the bottom of that inning, two coming off the bat of David Cooper, who hit his 18th home run. Eric Thames added his 23rd longball in the seventh.

WHAT'S NEXT?

The Cats and Ducks are set for a 6:35 PM EDT first pitch on Thursday night. Akron's Yorman Gómez (3-0, 1.90 ERA) gets the ball for the RubberDucks. New Hampshire's Thursday night starter is to be determined.

Check out the New Hampshire Fisher Cats Statistics

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