Fisher Cats 12/5, Fightin Phils 11/1
- Updated: August 21, 2024
MANCHESTER — The New Hampshire Fisher Cats (16-28, 46-66) took both ends of Tuesday’s doubleheader over the Hartford Yard Goats (24-21, 62-51), 12-11 and 5-1.
Tying up a suspended game from June 30 as the visitors, New Hampshire erased a late 11-8 deficit and won the first game over the Yard Goats, 12-11. In Game 2, the Fisher Cats rallied for five unanswered runs and finalized the sweep with a 5-1 win in seven innings.
In Game 1, the Cats scored seven runs in the top of the third, but Hartford battled back to tie the game and eventually took an 11-7 lead after six innings. Charles McAdoo ignited the New Hampshire offense with a solo home run in the top of the seventh and finished game one with eight total bases (two doubles and a homer). Trailing by one in the top of the ninth, Alex De Jesus ripped a two-run, opposite field homer to put the Fisher Cats in front.
Michael Turconi had three hits in game one, including a single before De Jesus’s blast. In game two, the infielder crushed a three-run homer over the right-center field fence, which scored Rainer Nuñez and Ryan McCarty and put the game away in the bottom of the sixth.
Right-hander Hunter Gregory started Game 1 for New Hampshire and allowed four runs over three innings. Nick Fraze pitched the fourth and fifth and gave up three runs. After allowing a grand slam to the Yard Goats’ Sterlin Thompson in the sixth, Adrian Hernandez (W, 1-0) bucked down for two scoreless innings before Johnathan Lavallee secured his third save with a scoreless ninth.
New Hampshire’s huge third inning came against Hartford righty Connor Van Scoyoc, who was tabbed with all seven runs. The Cats plated the seven thanks to four hits, five walks and a hit batter. The first six batters to come to the plate reached base, and Nuñez sparked the rally with a two-RBI double to right-center.
Trailing 11-7, the comeback started when De Jesus drove in McCarty for New Hampshire’s lone run of the sixth. McAdoo hit his third homer in a Cats uniform in the seventh and drove in Devonte Brown with a two-bagger in the eighth. De Jesus’s eighth bomb of the year put the bow on the five-run climb.
Hartford scored first in Game 2, thanks to an RBI double by shortstop Adael Amador off New Hampshire starter Abdiel Mendoza (W, 8-8), but the Fisher Cats rallied quickly. New Hampshire began the bottom of the third with three singles off Hartford’s Mason Albright (L, 3-8). Right fielder RJ Schreck plated the Cats’ first run and scored shortstop Josh Rivera from third with an RBI groundout.
The Fisher Cats snapped a 1-1 tie with a two-out rally in the bottom of the fifth. Center fielder Dasan Brown tripled off Braiden Ward’s diving glove and scored on the next pitch, a Schreck RBI double, to give New Hampshire a 2-1 advantage. Turconi’s three-run homer solidified the Fisher Cats’ advantage in the bottom of the sixth at 5-1.
Relievers Ryan Jennings and Anders Tolhurst helped keep the Yard Goats off the scoreboard after their lone tally with a pair of scoreless innings and four strikeouts combined.
New Hampshire and Hartford resume the series with a 6:35 p.m. first pitch on Wednesday, August 21. After missing action from July 4-August 15, RHP Michael Dominguez (2-5, 4.80 ERA) logs his second start since returning from the Development List. Hartford’s RHP Blake Adams (0-1, 13.50 ERA) is penciled for his second Double-A start in Wednesday’s game since receiving promotion from High-A Spokane on Aug. 14.
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