EL1 New Hampshire Fisher Cats

Campbell & Gorneault Blast Ninth-Inning HRs in 9-4 Loss

Published on July 22, 2009 under Eastern League (EL1)
New Hampshire Fisher Cats News Release


Manchester, NH- Scott Campbell and Nick Gorneault each belted two-run home runs in the bottom of the ninth inning, but the Trenton Thunder held on to defeat the New Hampshire Fisher Cats, 9-4, before a standing-room-only crowd of 6,872 at Merchantsauto.com Stadium on Wednesday night.

Facing a 9-0 deficit in the bottom of the ninth inning, the Fisher Cats (45-52) started to rally against reliever Humberto Sanchez. Following a walk to Jonathan Diaz (0-for-2, BB) and a fielder's choice grounder, Campbell (1-for-4, HR, 2 RBI) tagged his first homer of the year, a two-run blast over the right field fence. Brad Emaus (2-for-4, R) legged out an infield single before Gorneault (2-for-4, HR, 2 RBI) ripped his fourth homer off the batter's eye in center field, trimming Trenton's lead to 9-4.

That was as close as New Hampshire would get, as the Thunder made it back-to-back wins in the series. Ryan Pope (4-7) pitched a masterpiece over eight innings of shutout ball, scattering three hits, walking one and fanning a season-high seven batters without allowing a Fisher Cats' runner to reach second base.

Trenton (49-47) jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the top of the third inning against Luis Perez when Marcos Vechionacci (2-for-5, 2B, RBI, R) doubled to left and scored on a triple to left-center by Austin Krum (2-for-5, 3B, RBI, 3 R, BB). Krum scored on Eduardo Nunez's ground out.

The lead increased to 3-0 in the sixth on Vechionacci's two-out RBI single off Perez, scoring Chris Malec (2-for-3, BB, HBP, RBI, R), who had walked.

The lead ballooned to 7-0 in the seventh when the Thunder batted around, scoring four runs -three earned- off Toronto Blue Jays reliever Casey Janssen, who was making a Major League injury rehabilitation appearance. Janssen failed to retire any of the five batters he faced, yielding an RBI single to Nunez, allowing two runs to score on a throwing error and issuing a run-scoring single to Jesus Montero (2-for-5, 2B, 2 RBI) before departing.

Trenton tacked on a pair of runs off reliever Matt Hensley in the eighth inning on two-out , run-scoring hits from Montero (double) and Malec (single), grabbing a commanding 9-0 lead.

Perez (6-8) absorbed the loss after surrendering three runs on six hits in six innings, notching five strikeouts and walking one.

The Fisher Cats and Thunder conclude their four-game series with a 12:05pm Camp Day game at Merchantsauto.com Stadium on Thursday afternoon. New Hampshire sends right-hander Marty McLeary (2-2, 3.18) to the mound against Trenton righty Jason Stephens (1-0, 3.54). Radio coverage begins at 11:45am with the BayRing Pre-Game Show on the WGIR Fisher Cats Radio Network with Bob Lipman and Mike Murphy.

Thursday is the annual Splash Day at Merchantsauto.com Stadium. For tickets, visit www.nhfishercats.com or call (603) 641-2005.

Check out the New Hampshire Fisher Cats Statistics

Share: Facebook | Twitter/X | LinkedIn | Reddit | Email



Eastern League Stories from July 22, 2009


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central