Sea Dogs Complete Three-Game Sweep of Trenton

PORTLAND, Maine - The Portland Sea Dogs (26-14) swept away the Trenton Thunder (23-20) with a 2-1 win in the finale of their three-game series Sunday afternoon at Hadlock Field. The win marked the fourth in a row for the Sea Dogs and bumped their home record to 13-5.

Mike Augliera made just his third home start of the season and spun a beauty, completing, a career and team season-high, eight innings on the mound. He gave up a pair of hits over the first four frames before the Thunder scratched across a run in the fifth. 

Tyler Austin smacked a leadoff double to left and was driven home on an RBI single by Rob Refsnyder, which cut the Portland lead to 2-1, but that was all the righty would allow. After the two hits Augliera retired the next 10 hitters in a row before a Mason Williams single broke up the streak with two down in the eighth. He finished his outing by inducing a line out to second off the bat of Ben Gamel.

Noe Ramirez took over in the ninth for the starter and picked up seamlessly where Augliera left off. The righty retired the first two hitters in a row and locked down the third save of his season with a groundout to second by Slade Heathcott.

Portland took advantage of a couple of Trenton mistakes in the field and held a 2-0 advantage after the third inning. Blake Swihart singled with one out and moved to second on a two-out walk drawn by Heiker Meneses. Derrik Gibson followed with an infield single up the middle that scored Swihart from second, which gave Portland the 1-0 lead. 

The Sea Dogs doubled up in the third thanks to the wheels of Mookie Betts. The second baseman led off the inning with a single and moved to second on Travis Shaw's sacrifice bunt. Betts then swiped third base and scored when the throw down by the catcher Gary Sanchez went into left and Portland held the two-run lead.

Jeremy Bleich pitched into the seventh for the Thunder and finished with six and two-thirds under his belt. The lefty gave up the two runs, one unearned, on three hits, three walks, and seven strikeouts. Fred Lewis faced four batters and wrapped up the game in scoreless fashion for the Thunder.

The Sea Dogs welcome in the Binghamton Mets for the first two games of their 6-game, four-day series. The doubleheader gets underway Monday evening at 5PM from Hadlock Field. LHP Henry Owens (4-2, 3.30) goes for the 'Dogs in game one against the Mets' RHP Hansel Robles (1-2, 5.40). Game two will feature RHP Mike McCarthy (2-2, 5.58) for the Sea Dogs against RHP Greg Peavey (3-1, 3.05) of the Mets. Radio coverage begins at 4:40 PM on the WPEI U.S. Cellular Sea Dogs Radio Network and www.seadogs.com. MILB.TV coverage begins at 4:55 PM.