EL1 New Hampshire Fisher Cats

Fantastic Forty: Pompey Extends On-Base Streak

Published on July 10, 2015 under Eastern League (EL1)
New Hampshire Fisher Cats News Release


NEW BRITAIN, CT - The New Hampshire Fisher Cats gave up runs early and often Friday night, dropping a 9-1 rout to the New Britain Rock Cats at New Britain Stadium to begin their last series before the Eastern League All-Star break.

The Fisher Cats (43-42) gave up three runs in the first and never led in the game, squandering a bit of the recent momentum that had seen them take five of their previous six games. New Britain (44-43) broke out of a recent skid and scored five runs in the first two innings. In a silver lining, Dalton Pompey cracked a second-inning RBI single to extend his team-record on-base streak to a whopping 40 games.

The Rock Cats drew first blood in the bottom of the first against Fisher Cats starter Murphy Smith (L, 1-1). The righty plunked leadoff man Joey Wong, and Pat Valaika singled his way aboard immediately after. Mike Tauchman lashed a two-run double to the right-center field gap, and after a Noel Cuevas bunt single, Will Swanner sliced an RBI single to run New Britain's lead to 3-0.

The Fisher Cats got on the board in the top of the second, as New Britain starter Ryan Carpenter (W, 5-9) gave up a one-out walk to Emilio Guerrero. Jack Murphy and Ian Parmley notched consecutive singles to load the bases. After Jorge Flores popped out, Pompey beat out a grounder to shortstop to score Guerrero and trim the New Britain lead to 3-1, extending his hitting streak in the process.

New Britain answered in a hurry in the bottom of the second. Zach Osborne reached on a one-out single, and moved to second on a groundout to third by Wong. Valaika and Tauchman each walked to load the bases, and Cuevas looped a two-run double to left, extending New Britain's advantage to 5-1.

The Rock Cats kept pounding Smith in the fourth, as he let Osborne on with a hit-by-pitch to begin the frame, and Valaika would single him home for the hosts' sixth run. Things went no better for New Hampshire reliever Dustin Antolin in the fifth, as he gave up back-to-back two-out doubles to Jeremy Barfield and Charley Thurber to allow New Britain to assume a 7-1 edge. New Britain added on two more against new reliever Cory Burns in the seventh inning, as Valaika drove home Jan Vazquez and Thurber to make it 9-1 for the exclamation point.

Smith took the loss, allowing six runs on eight hits and two walks and fanning one in four innings. He hit two batters and fired two wild pitches. Antolin surrendered a run on three hits over two innings, whiffing one and hitting a batter. Burns coughed up two runs on three hits in his only inning of action, recording a strikeout as well as one hit batter. Chad Girodo twirled a perfect inning with one strikeout.

The Fisher Cats will look to right the ship Saturday night in New Britain at 7:05 p.m. Lefty John Anderson gets the ball for New Hampshire against Rock Cats righty Bryan Evans. Ben Gellman has the radio call beginning at 6:45 p.m. on the WGIR Fisher Cats Radio Network and www.nhfishercats.com.

The Fisher Cats will open the post-All-Star portion of the season against the Future Red Sox with a four-game series beginning on Thursday, July 16. The series with the Portland Sea Dogs features three Atlas Fireworks show, a celebration of the Back to the Future trilogy on July 17, and a visit by Curious George on July 19. Tickets are available at www.nhfishercats.com, by calling 603-641-2005, and by visiting the stadium box office.

Check out the New Hampshire Fisher Cats Statistics

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Eastern League Stories from July 10, 2015


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