MANCHESTER – Brock Lundquist blasted a sixth inning grand slam and drove in five runs as the New Hampshire Fisher Cats (Toronto Blue Jays Double-A affiliate) beat the Somerset Patriots (New York Yankees) 7-2 on Wednesday night at Delta Dental Stadium.
The Fisher Cats (3-5) had loaded the bases on singles by Jordan Groshans and Gabriel Moreno and a walk to Demi Orimoloye. Lundquist then cleared the video board in right center field to break what had been a 2-2 tie.
Somerset (5-3) had opened a 1-0 lead with a pair of two-out hits in the top of the second inning. Thomas Milone singled and Michael Beltre doubled him home.
Limited to just one hit through the first four innings, the Fisher Cats came up with four hits to produce a pair of runs in the fifth. Lundquist and Samad Taylor had RBI singles to put New Hampshire up 2-1. Fisher Cats starter Elvis Luciano was in line for a win after allowing one run over his five innings, but the Patriots tied the game on a sixth inning single by Diego Castillo.
New Hampshire added a run in the bottom of the eighth inning after Kevin Vicuna reached on a hit-by-pitch and Otto Lopez doubled him home. Reliever Andrew McInvale (2.0 IP, 3 K, 1 ER) earned the win in his Double-A debut. Mike Ellenbest worked two scoreless frames to close out the win for the Fisher Cats.
Somerset reliever Carlos Espinal (0-1) was tagged with the loss in relief of starter Matt Krook, who held the Fisher Cats to two runs in 4.2 innings.
The Fisher Cats and Patriots meet in the third game of the series on Thursday at 6:35 p.m.
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