Vancouver took the Northwest League championship last week and Lansing went down in their series Thursday. Now, New Hampshire finds itself poised for the Midwest League title with just 27 outs to go.
New Hampshire 5 Richmond 3 (New Hampshire leads series 2-1)
Fisher Cats bats were muted by Flying Squirrels starter Jason Stevenson for 5.2 innings as New Hampshire was able to get only one ball out of the infield on a fly out by Jonathan Diaz in the 3rd. The tide started to turn against Richmond in the 5th when they loaded the bases with one out, but were shut down by a Jonathan Diaz initiated double play to Tolisano and McDade to take the Fisher Cats out of a dangerous bases-loaded spot.
In the fifth inning, Stevenson customarily took out two more New Hampshire batters on an infield pop up by Yan Gomes and a strike out by John Talisano. Then Diaz made way for a unleashing of 5 runs in the inning with a two-out wak. Diaz advanced to third on Anthony Gose’s single Kevin Howard’s walk and a wild pitch scored Diaz to begin the nights scoring and moved Gose to third. Gose Scores on another wild pitch. With Moises Sierra batting, Howard steals third. Sierra doubles in Howard. Travis d’Arnaude doubles scoring Sierra. Whew!
Despite a pitching change, New Hampshire wasn’t done with the sixth. Man Mountain Mike McDade smacked an RBI single scoring d’Arnaud, still with two out. Dany Perales was the 9th batter of the inning and he flew out to left field. With a near perfect 6 innings, Stevens got stuck with 5 runs as the Fisher Cats came alive at the plate.
The Flying Squirrels managed 2 more runs, one in the bottom of the six and the bottom of the 8th, but it wasn’t enough to catch New Hampshire who was outhit 11 to 6. Wes Etheredge took the win and Bobby Korecky earned the save by shutting down the Flying Squirrels in the 9th.
New Hampshire has only 27 outs between them and the Eastern League Championship and it could be settled Saturday evening with a New Hampshire win or the series may go to five games with a contest slated for Sunday if necessary.
That wraps my involvement in the MLU for Fridays in 2011. It has been my high honor and distinct pleaser to write Friday night reports in what has been an exciting 2011 season for Toronto’s farm clubs. Thank you all for looking at Da Box.
Three Stars!
Moises Sierra 1 for 4, Double, RBI
Travis d’Arnaud 1 for 4, Double, RBI
