The first place Erie SeaWolves gutted out a 5-3 win in 11 innings on Wednesday night against the Richmond Flying Squirrels at The Diamond. The win, coupled with a Bowie win over Akron, keeps Erie with a one-game lead in the standings (with a tie breaker) over the Baysox and
The first place Erie SeaWolves gutted out a 5-3 win in 11 innings on Wednesday night against the Richmond Flying Squirrels at The Diamond. The win, coupled with a Bowie win over Akron, keeps Erie with a one-game lead in the standings (with a tie breaker) over the Baysox and gives them a three-game lead over the RubberDucks.
The SeaWolves took the lead in the third against Richmond starter Kyle Harrison. Harrison retired the first eight batters of the game before Danny Serretti singed to extend the inning with his first Double-A knock. Dane Myers doubled home Serretti for a 1-0 lead.
Spot starter Elvis Alvarado gave Erie two scoreless innings before handing it over to Brant Hurter. Hurter kept Richmond off the board hurling 4.2 scoreless. Hurter got into trouble in the seventh and left the game with runners on the corners with two outs. Brendan White struck out Ricardo Genoves to get Erie out of the jam.
Erie grew the lead to 2-0 in the top of the eighth. Daniel Cabrera led off with a single against releiver Evan Gates and moved to second on a Myers walk. Parker Meadows doubled home Cabrera with his second of three hits on the night.
Richmond tied the game in the last of the eighth. Shane Matheny singled off of White with one out. White indued a flyout from Tyler Fitzgerald for the second out. He then worked to an 0-2 count on Diego Rincones before yielding a game-tying two-run home run. Rincones has now homered in consecutive games in the series.
White stayed in the game and struck out the side in the ninth, sending the game to extra innings.
The SeaWolves could not plate a run in the top of the 10th and turned the ball to Gerson Moreno in the bottom of the 10th inning. Genoves attempted to bunt the free runner to third but popped out to Gage Workman at third. Pinch-hitter Riley Mahan singled and advanced to second on a throw putting runners on second and third for the Squirrels. Moreno then struck out Fitzgerald and Rincones to strand the bases loaded.
Richmond summed reliever Clay Helvey for the top of the 11th. Andrew Navigato led off and grounded out to second, advancing the free runner Myers to third. With the infield playing in, Meadows singled to center with his third hit of the night to plate the go-ahead run. Helvey struck out Quincy Nieporte for the second out bringing up Josh Crouch. Crouch clobbered his first Double-A home run to straight away center, giving the SeaWolves a 5-2 lead.
Adam Wolf worked the bottom of the 11th inning for Erie. He retired Will Wilson for the first out before giving up a single to Casey Schmitt putting runners on the corners. Tristan Peters grounded out, plating the free runner in Rincones to make it 5-3. Wolf induced a game-ending groundout from Carter Aldrete to earn his fourth save.
Moreno (4-2) earned the win after throwing the scoreless 10th. He allowed one hit with an intentional walk and a pair of strikeouts. Moreno has earned the win in each of the first two games of the series.
Helvey (1-2) took the loss allowing three runs, two earned, on two hits with no walks and two strikeouts.