The SeaWolves failed to hang on to a two-run lead in the ninth inning as they fell to the Richmond Flying Squirrels by a 7-6 final on Friday night at The Diamond.
Erie took the lead in the second when Josh Lester homered to center off of Squirrels starter Matt Frisbee for a 1-0 lead. The home run for Lester was his 20th.
Richmond tied the game against Erie starter Reese Olson in the bottom of the second. Vince Fernandez walked with one out and later scored on a Simon Whiteman single.
In the top of the fifth, Lester came through again with a solo home run to left-center, his 21st, for a 2-1 advantage.
The Squirrels quickly tied up the game in the home half of the fifth against Erie reliever Brad Bass. Singles from Diego Rincones, Mitchell Tolman and David Villar loaded the bases. Francisco Tostado brought home the tying run by grounding out, scoring Rincones.
The teams exchanged home runs in the sixth. In the top half, Chris Proctor led off with his first and in the bottom half, Andres Angulo led off with his third making it 3-3.
Richmond took a 4-3 lead in the bottom of the seventh against reliever Henry Martinez when Villar doubled and scored on a Luis Basabe base hit.
Erie regained the lead in the eighth against Richmond reliever Ronnie Williams. Erie De La Rosa was hit by a pitch with one out and Proctor singled putting two on for Danny Woodrow. Woodrow sent a weak ground ball up the first base line and a Williams throwing error allowed both baserunners to score and put Woodrow on third. Dane Myers singled home Woodrow giving the SeaWolves their largest lead of the night at 6-4.
Gerson Moreno entered in the ninth inning looking for the save but struggled. Moreno hit the leadoff man Tolman and walked Villar, putting the tying run on. He struck out Tostado for the first out. Moreno then walked Basabe to load the bases. Richmond then tied the game when Moreno hit Fernandez and walked Angulo. With two outs and the bases still loaded, Erie brought in Joe Navilhon who gave up the game-winning single to Rincones.
Williams (5-4) earned the win allowing three runs, one earned, in two innings of relief.
Moreno (5-3) took the loss allowing three runs on no hits with three walks, two strikeouts and two hit batters in 0.2 innings.
Both starters took no-decisions. For Erie, Olson allowed a run on four hits with four walks and a strikeout over four innings. Frisbee allowed three runs on four hits with six strikeouts in seven innings.