Rock Cats Drop Heartbreaker, 6-5

Published on July 14, 2012 under Eastern League (EL1)
New Britain Rock Cats News Release


NEW BRITAIN, CT - Trenton's JR Murphy homered in the ninth inning to hand New Britain a tough-luck 6-5 loss before 5,485 at New Britain Stadium on Saturday night. The Thunder regained sole possession of first place in the Eastern Division.

Trenton scored four runs in the seventh but New Britain roared back with three runs of its own in the bottom of the inning to tie the game, 5-5. In the top of the ninth, the Rock Cats sent Bruce Pugh to the mound. Pugh, who hadn't allowed a run in the 14 games he has pitched in for the Rock Cats this season, served up an 0-1 home run to Murphy, the first batter he faced.

Murphy's game-winner erased a valiant effort by the Rock Cats, who clawed back into the game twice.

"(Starting pitcher) Blake Martin's outing gets a little overshadowed," said Rock Cats manager Jeff Smith. "He threw a great ball game for six innings."

Kevin Mahoney put the Thunder on the board with a solo shot over the right center field wall off of Martin for the 1-0 lead.

Martin labored through the first two innings but then settled down to retire 10-straight batters.

The Rock Cats broke out the lumber in the third inning. Daniel Rohlfing lined a double into center field to start of the inning and moved to third on a sacrifice bunt by Estralin De Los Santos. Aaron Hicks followed with a single up the middle to knock in Rohlfing to tie the game. Chris Herrmann and Oswaldo Arcia followed with consecutive singles, with Hicks scoring the go-ahead run on Arcia's base hit into left.

The Thunder didn't strike again against Martin until Luke Morton led off the seventh with a blast to right field that tied the game, 2-2. Mahoney then singled and Murphy lined a triple to center to knock Mahoney in for the 3-2 lead. Neil Medchill added an RBI single before Martin was replaced by David Bromberg. Addison Maruszak delivered an RBI double and David Adams added an RBI single to extend the lead, 5-2.

Martin was charged with all four run in the seventh and finished with five runs on nine hits in six innings. He struck out six. Martin was bailed out by his offense in the bottom of the seventh as the Rock Cats turned in a big inning of its own.

In the bottom of the seventh, the Rock cats feasted on reliever Craig Heyer. De Los Santos started things off with a one-out double and Hicks reached base on walk. Herrmann ground into a force out that scored De Los Santos to close the gap, 5-3. Arcia drew a walk before Chris Colabello doubled into center to knock in Herrmann and Arcia to tie the game.

Kelvin Perez (4-1) picked up the win with 1 1/3 shutout innings in relief. Danny Farquhar notched his fourth save with a scoreless ninth. Pugh (2-1) suffered the loss after surrendering the go-ahead home run in the ninth.

"The little things came back to get us tonight," said Smith. "You get the feeling that whoever scores next is going to win and that's how it worked out tonight."

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



Eastern League Stories from July 14, 2012


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