MANCHESTER, N.H. – One can say that a lack of offense doomed the New Hampshire Fisher Cats on Wednesday night, but New Hampshire was in line defeat the Harrisburg Senators until five runs in the ninth turned a New Hampshire victory into a 5-3 defeat.
William Ouellette allowed three straight singles to begin the ninth, with Corey Copping replacing Ouellette and allowing another single to Tres Barrera.
These four straight hits produced two runs for the visitors, and after finally recording an out, a wild pitch put two men into scoring position and Nick Banks’ second triple of the year brought in another two runs for Harrisburg.
A second wild pitch from Copping brought in the Senators’ fifth run and the Fisher Cats could only muster one hit in the bottom of the ninth in response to Harrisburg’s onslaught.
The horrific ninth inning spoiled nearly six no-hit innings from Fisher Cats starter Nate Pearson, as well as a hold from Jake Fishman.
Copping’s poor performance earned him his first loss and blown save of the year. Bryan Bonnell rose to 2-1 on the back of his eighth inning and Aaron Barrett took his 21st save of the year after retiring New Hampshire in the ninth.
At the plate, New Hampshire mustered just five hits, with two coming from Santiago Espinal and two from Kevin Smith. Espinal also drove in two of New Hampshire’s three runs.
Harrisburg got two hits from Barrera and two hits from Dante Bichette Jr.
New Hampshire now welcomes Reading to town, with Thursday’s 7:50 p.m. start pitting the Fisher Cats’ Justin Dillon (2-2, 5.04 ERA) against Reading’s Gustavo Arenas (0-0, 0.00 ERA).