Watson, Rogers Meet for Series Rubber Match
EL New Hampshire Fisher Cats

Watson, Rogers Meet for Series Rubber Match

Published on July 3, 2025 under Eastern League (EL)
New Hampshire Fisher Cats News Release


The New Hampshire Fisher Cats (2-6, 31-46) and the Portland Sea Dogs (3-5, 37-38) close out their three-game set at Delta Dental Stadium with a 6:35 PM EDT first pitch on Thursday night.

LAST TIME OUT

The Fisher Cats snapped a five-game skid behind starter Grant Rogers' (W, 2-4) third consecutive quality start on Wednesday night, 4-1.

Rogers tossed a season-high seven innings and collected four strikeouts for his sixth quality start this season. In his last three starts, Rogers has surrendered four earned runs and four walks across 19 innings pitched.

For the second straight game, New Hampshire scored first on a first inning homer. After Jackson Hornung laced a double, Charles McAdoo blasted a 410-foot, two-run shot for his sixth blast of the year that gave the Cats a 2-0 lead.

New Hampshire piled on two more runs in the bottom of the second inning thanks to three-straight singles from the bottom third of the order. Making his first Double-A start, Je'Von Ward smoked a single to right field before Gabriel Martinez knocked his third hit of the series. Catcher Jacob Sharp tucked a single to left field to plate Ward and Hornung followed with a single to extend New Hampshire's lead to 4-0.

Hornung extended his hit streak to eight games and has reached safely in each of his first eight games with New Hampshire. Martinez went 2-for-4 for the second-straight game and is 4-for-8 in the series.

Fisher Cats reliever Alex Amalfi (S, 4) took care of the top of the eighth and ninth inning, fanning four batters and not allowing a base runner to secure the Cats' 4-1 win.

PITCHING MATCHUP

Right-hander Ryan Watson (4-5, 4.10 ERA) will make his 14th start and second against the Sea Dogs this season. Watson fired a season-high seven scoreless innings in New Hampshire's 8-2 win over Portland on May 2. Watson leads all New Hampshire arms with 74-2/3 innings pitched and has fanned 57 batters while walking 18. He made his Double-A debut out of the bullpen on April 6 against Binghamton and tossed four scoreless with five punchouts to pick up his first career Double-A win. Watson went on to post a 1.64 earned run average across four appearances in April, with 18 strikeouts to two walks. The Sugar Hill, Georgia native battled through the month of May with a 6.08 earned run average in five starts before maintaining a 4.15 earned run average across 26 innings pitched and five starts in June.

The Sea Dogs trot Dalton Rogers (2-1, 4.97 ERA) to the hill for his eighth appearance and fifth start for Portland this season. rogers started the year with High-A Greenville where he made five appearances and one start for the Drive. The lefty completed 20-1/3 innings pitched with a 1.31 earned run average and struck out 28 batters to 10 walks, while holding batters to a .173 average. His lone start with the Drive was on May 3 against Asheville (HOU) when he fanned nine batters in five scoreless innings. Less than two weeks later, Rogers dealt five scoreless frames with two hits and six punchouts in his Double-A debut on May 16 in Somerset. Across High-A and Double-A, Rogers has struck out 30% of the batters he has faced in 12 appearances. Boston selected Rogers in the third round of the 2022 MLB Draft out of Southern Mississippi and started his professional baseball career in the Florida Complex League later that summer. Rogers climbed from Single-A Salem to High-A Greenville in 2023. He spent the entire 2024 campaign with the Drive and made 21 total appearances and 19 starts while pitching to a tune of a 5.12 earned run average. Rogers collected 89 strikeouts to 50 walks across 82-2/3 innings pitched for a 5.44 strikeout to walk ratio.

THIS DAY IN FISHER CATS HISTORY

July 3, 2007- The Fisher Cats completed a four-game sweep of the Sea Dogs at Hadlock with a 9-4 win. Portland had tied the game at 4-4 in the sixth, but New Hampshire answered with five in the seventh, including a grand slam by Ryan Patterson off New Hampshire-native Kyle Jackson. Patterson finished 3-for-4 with a double and a home run. Seth Overbey worked three scoreless innings to earn his first save.

WHAT'S NEXT?

The Cats and Dogs hit the road on Friday to play a three-game series at Hadlock Field in Portland. First pitch for Friday night is set for 6:20 PM EDT and neither team has announced starters for the series-opening game in Portland.

Check out the New Hampshire Fisher Cats Statistics

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