The Portland Sea Dogs took an early lead on Saturday night at Hadlock Field and sent the SeaWolves to their second straight loss by a 6-5 final.
The Dogs jumped on Erie starter Reese Olson in the bottom of the first. Wilyer Abreu led off with a walk and was
The Portland Sea Dogs took an early lead on Saturday night at Hadlock Field and sent the SeaWolves to their second straight loss by a 6-5 final.
The Dogs jumped on Erie starter Reese Olson in the bottom of the first. Wilyer Abreu led off with a walk and was sacrifice to second on a David Hamilton bunt. Ceddanne Rafaela doubled home Abreu for a 1-0 lead. Rafaela later scored on a two-out Alex Binelas base hit for a 2-0 advantage.
Erie cut the lead down to a run in the second when Quincy Nieporte led off against Dogs starter Bryan Mata and connected on his 24th home run of the season over the Maine Monster in left. It was his third home run of the series.
Portland went back ahead by two in the third when Stephen Scott led off with a triple and scored on an error on a ground ball from Nick Northcut.
The SeaWolves closed the lead to a run once again in the fourth. Parker Meadows singled with one out and Nieporte walked. Wenceel Perez doubled home Meadows but Erie would strand runners on second and third as Mata got out of the jam.
The Sea Dogs knocked Olson out of the game in the fourth inning following a one-out Rafaela double. Nick Kuzia entered and got the second out before issuing a walk to Scott. Binelas then connected on a three-run home run to make it a 6-2 game.
Erie closed the gap once again to a run in the sixth. Andrew Navigato led off with a single and Meadows walked. With two outs, Dillon Dingler walked to load the bases. Portland summoned reliever Oddanier Mosqueda who gave up a two-run single to Dane Myers. Michael De La Cruz then sent a chopper to third and on an error, Dingler scored to make it 6-5.
The SeaWolves had the tying run on base in both the eighth and ninth innings but could not push across any additional runs. Jacob Wallace earned the save hurling a scoreless ninth inning.
Mata (2-2) earned the win allowing five runs, four earned, on four hits with five walks and six strikeouts in 5.2 innings.
Olson (4-5) took the loss allowing four runs, three earned, on seven hits with three walks and two strikeouts.