Sea Dogs split doubleheader with Somerset

PORTLAND, ME- After the start of their six game series with the first place Somerset Patriots was postponed due to rain on Tuesday night, the Portland Sea Dogs did begin that series with a pair of seven inning games on Wednesday night at Hadlock Field. The evening would end with a split, as Portland won in comeback fashion in game one 5-3 and dropped the nightcap 11-3.

In the first game, Portland took an early 1-0 lead on a bases loaded walk by Ronaldo Hernandez in the second inning. Somerset took the lead in the third when Oswald Peraza smacked a two-run double. Michael Beltre hit a solo homerun in the fourth into the batters eye in centerfield to extend the advantage to 3-1 Patriots. The Sea Dogs plated four runs in the fifth to help them pick up the win. Grant Williams led off with a single, and then with one out Tate Matheny blasted one into the right field pavilion for a two-run homer to tie the game. Triston Casas followed with a single, and then Devlin Granberg doubled. Hudson Potts walked that turned out to be a wild pitch that scored Casas for the game winner, and another wild pitch with Hernandez batting scored Granberg to finish the scoring. Granberg led the way with two hits, and Josh Winckowski (3-1) started the game and picked up the win on the hill allowing three runs on seven hits with no walks and nine strikeouts in 5.0 innings. Denyi Reyes got his second hold of the season, while Durbin Feltman got his first save. Diego Castillo and Isiah Gilliam had two hits each for Somerset, while Luis Medina (0-1) took the pitching loss allowing five runs on six hits in 4.1 innings.

The visting Patriots dominated in the second game to pick up the doubleheader split. The guests broke it open with a six run third inning highlighted by a two-run double by Castillo, and a two-run single by Oswaldo Cabrera. Somerset starting pitcher Ken Waldichuk no-hit Portland until the bottom of the sixth when Hudson Potts ended that with a one out single, and then Matheny hit another two-run homer to end the night for Waldichuk. Ryan Fitzgerald greeted the reliever with a solo homerun to make it back to back for the only runs for the Sea Dogs. Emmanuel De Jesus (2-2) lost on the mound allowing six runs on four hits in just 2.1 innings. No Portland player had more than one hit. Castillo, Thomas Milone, and Max Burt had two hits each in the win for the Patriots and Waldichuk (1-0) earned the win allowing two runs on two hits with four walks and 10 strikeouts in 5.1 innings. Somerset (28-15) maintains their three game lead in the division over Portland (25-18) with four more games to play in the series this week.