Sea Dogs Open at Home with 6-4 Win

PORTLAND, MAINE - The Portland Sea Dogs (4-3) opened up the 21st home season in franchise history with a 6-4 win over the New Britain Rock Cats (3-4) Thursday night at Hadlock Field in Portland. The 6,022 in attendance marked the largest for a home opener since 2003 for the Sea Dogs.

New Britain looked to spoil the home opener for the Sea Dogs and plated an unearned run against Keith Couch in the first inning. Kennys Vargas connected on a sacrifice fly to right and plated Brad Boyer to give the Rock Cats the 1-0 advantage.

Portland went quietly in the first, but regrouped and pulled ahead 2-1 in the second. With one out, Carlos Rivero tucked a double down the left field line and Matt Spring followed with a wall ball two-bagger off the Maine Monster that pulled the Dogs even at 1-1. Peter Hissey drove home the second run with a ground out to first that scored Spring two batters later. 

D.J. Baxendale retired the side in order in the third, but Portland connected for another in the fourth, courtesy of a Sean Coyle single that plated Rivero and upped the lead to 3-1. 

The left fielder Rivero was at it again with two down in the fifth against the righty Baxendale (0-1). He dropped a single into center that scored both Mookie Betts and Shannon Wilkerson to give Portland the 5-1 advantage. 

Couch (2-0) settled into a groove after the first and never looked back. He retired the side in order in the second, and weaved his way through minimal trouble over the next three plus innings before being removed with two outs in the sixth. 

For the second start in a row, the righty went five and two-thirds and allowed an unearned run. New Britain tallied five hits against Couch, walked once, and struck out five times. Baxendale finished six innings on the mound for New Britain. The righty gave up five runs, all earned, on eight hits; he walked one and struck out four. 

The Sea Dogs tallied the final run of the night in the seventh on a triple to center by Mookie Betts. He came around to score on a throwing error on the relay throw from center by the shortstop Aderling Mejia to make it 6-1. 

The Rock Cats attempted to mount a comeback late against Portland righty, Noe Ramirez. The run in the eighth came when Nate Hanson singled off of Ramirez and was guided around the diamond on three wild pitches by the righty. 

Ramirez was sent back out to the mound for the ninth and was greeted by back-to-back base hits, which put runners on second and third with nobody out. Corey Wimberly produced a run with a ground out to second and cut the deficit three.  

Ramirez battled back and retired the next batter, but gave up an RBI single to Hanson and New Britain pulled to within two, at 6-4. Jose Valdez took over for Ramirez with two on and two out in the final frame. The veteran righty induced a ground out to second off the bat of Daniel Ortiz for the final out of the game. 

The Sea Dogs and New Britain Rock Cats return to Hadlock and square off in game two of the four-game series Friday night at 6:00 PM. The Sea Dogs will send lefty Mickey Pena (0-0, 6.00) to the mound against New Britain's LHP Taylor Rogers (0-1, 15.75). Radio coverage begins at 5:40 PM on the U.S. Cellular Sea Dogs Radio Network and www.seadogs.com. Coverage on MiLB.TV kicks-off at 5:50PM. Tickets for all 2014 Sea Dogs home games are available and can be ordered by calling the Sea Dogs ticket office at 207-879-9500 or order online at www.seadogs.com.