Fisher Cats Face Knuckleballer Serwa on Friday Night
Published on August 29, 2025 under Eastern League (EL)
New Hampshire Fisher Cats News Release
The New Hampshire Fisher Cats (21-32, 50-72) and the Erie SeaWolves (27-27, 72-51) play the fourth game of their series starting at 6:35 PM EDT on Friday night. New Hampshire honors Manchester's rich hockey roots with Hockey Night at Delta Dental Stadium.
LAST NIGHT
The Fisher Cats' losing skid fell to four games after a 10-2 loss to Erie on Thursday night. New Hampshire took an early lead in the bottom of the second inning on Jackson Hornung's fifth Double-A homer, a 404-foot bomb to make it 1-0. The Fisher Cats' second and final run came across in the bottom of the third inning when Jacob Sharp doubled and scored on Charles McAdoo's two-out single.
Erie plated nine runs across the top of the third, fourth and fifth innings to hand New Hampshire a 10-2 loss.
New Hampshire's Sharp and McAdoo each recorded two-hit games and accounted for four of the Cats' five hits. Sharp went 2-for-3 with a pair of doubles and McAdoo posted his 21st two-hit game of the season.
Fisher Cats starter Grant Rogers (L, 6-8) took the loss after surrendering a career-high seven earned runs on nine hits over 4-1/3 innings pitched.
Erie's Carlos Peña (W, 6-6) collected the win by holding New Hampshire to two hits and striking out six over four scoreless innings of relief.
PITCHING MATCHUP
New Hampshire's Rafael Sánchez (2-7, 5.36 ERA) will make his 24th appearance and team-leading 18th start of the season. Sánchez has rejoined New Hampshire's rotation after taking on a bullpen role through the majority of June and July. Through five starts in August, Sánchez owns an 0-2 record with a 5.40 earned run average. In 20 innings this month, Sánchez has surrendered 12 runs on 17 hits with 17 punchouts to five walks. His last time out was on August 23 in Akron, where the right-hander tossed 5-1/3 innings pitched and allowed four runs on four hits with two walks and five strikeouts. The Antilla, Cuba native, is in his second season with the Fisher Cats after joining New Hampshire at the end of the 2024 campaign. Sánchez was called up from High-A Vancouver on July 30 before pitching to a 2.28 earned run average over four starts with New Hampshire in August. He made one start against the SeaWolves on August 10, when Sánchez fired 6-2/3 scoreless innings with seven strikeouts and two hits in New Hampshire's 3-0 win over Erie in Manchester.
Kenny Serwa (5-5, 3.76 ERA) takes the mound for his 15th Double-A start on Friday night. Serwa is in his first season of professional baseball after signing a minor league deal with the Tigers on January 22. The 28-year-old went 3-1 with a 2.75 earned run average over 10 appearances for High-A West Michigan before being called up to Erie on June 5. Featuring two variations of a knuckleball, Serwa throws the fastest knuckleball recorded in baseball history at 87 mph and maxes out at 88.5 mph. He also mixes in a slower, mid-80s knuckleball that he tabbed the "Yoshi" pitch. Outside of the two knuckleballs, Serwa's repertoire includes a cutter, fastball, sinker and curveball. The right-hander has been throwing knuckleballs since he was nine years old and went viral on social media on January 11 after his bullpen at Tread Athletics in North Carolina. A video of one of Serwa's knuckleballs was posted by the facility's co-founder, Ben Brewster, and accrued nearly one million views on X. Before joining affiliated baseball, Serwa pitched for the Chicago Dogs in the American Association in 2024. Serwa pitched six seasons of college baseball across four different schools, finishing his collegiate career with the Dayton Flyers in 2022. Through 24 MiLB appearances, Serwa is 8-6 with a 3.41 earned run average and 75 strikeouts over 103 innings pitched.
THIS DAY IN FISHER CATS HISTORY
August 29, 2019- The Fisher Cats rolled to an 8-2 win over Trenton at Delta Dental Stadium. Chad Spanberger doubled in the third to drive in Josh Palacios for a 3-2 lead, and Palacios hit a three-run homer in the fourth. Riley Adams followed with a solo shot to complete a five-run inning. Thomas Hatch struck out 11 over seven innings of two-run ball for the win, and Corey Copping and Dany Jimenez each tossed an inning of scoreless relief.
WHAT'S NEXT?
New Hampshire and Erie open their weekend slate of games starting at 6:35 PM EDT on Saturday night. Erie's Garrett Burhenn (11-3, 4.54 ERA) starts for the SeaWolves and New Hampshire's starter is to be determined. The Fisher Cats will play as the New Hampshire Space Potatoes for the final time in 2025.
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