TRENTON, NJ – The New Hampshire Fisher Cats are coming home and they’re bringing a good start to the season with them.
New Hampshire concluded its season opening road trip on Wednesday with a 4-0 victory over the Trenton Thunder, the sixth win in their first seven games.
After averaging 9.5 hits per game over their first six games, New Hampshire’s bats were limited to just six hits during Wednesday’s contest, but those hits arrived at key junctures and arrived with some quality base running.
Their first run came in the second inning, as Cavan Biggio’s walk and subsequent steal put him in position to reach home on Harold Ramirez’ single to centerfield.
Ramirez would advance to second on a poor throw from Thunder centerfielder Ben Ruta, and he’d eventually reach home on a second throwing error. That error came courtesy of Trenton catcher Chace Numata, who failed to catch Ramirez stealing third.
New Hampshire’s second pair of runs came in the seventh, with Vladmir Guerrero Jr. and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. delivering back-to-back singles that brought home Patrick Cantwell and Jonathan Davis respectively.
While the ‘Cats offensive performance certainly was not up to par with their output earlier in the road trip, it was definitely enough pair with outstanding pitching from starter Jordan Romano and relievers Justin Shafer and Andrew Case.
Romano (1-0) allowed just three hits in seven innings of work, striking out seven Trenton batters along the way. Shafer and Case were almost perfect during the last two innings of the contest, allowing just one combined baserunner.
The old baseball adage is that good pitching beats good hitting, but for the Fisher Cats this year, good hitting has helped build good pitching, even when there’s just a belief that good hitting is inevitable if it isn’t quite there at that moment.
“If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a hundred times, a team is only as good as its pitching and especially its starting pitching, and (the starting pitching) has kind of answered the bell for the first week,” said Fisher Cats manager John Schneider. “I think everyone on the pitching staff knows that we’re going to score runs on most nights, so that lets them go out there, be confident, challenge hitters and not try to pick around the zone. So far it’s worked out for us.”
Domingo Acevedo (0-1) was the hard-luck loser for Trenton, allowing two hits and four walks in his five-inning performance.
The Fisher Cats return to Manchester on Thursday for their home opener on Friday against the Hartford Yard Goats. First pitch is at 6:35 p.m., with righty Nick Tepesch (1-0, 1.50 ERA) taking the mound for New Hampshire against Hartford’s Jesus Tinoco (0-1, 4.50 ERA).