Owens Dominant as Sea Dogs Sweep Rock Cats
Portland, Maine - The Portland Sea Dogs (59-29) used eight innings from Henry Owens and a four-run eighth to down the New Britain Rock Cats (42-43) 6-1 in the series finale Sunday afternoon at Hadlock Field. The win completes the three-game series sweep for Portland and ups the season series to 11-5 in favor of the 'Dogs.
For the third game in a row, the Sea Dogs took the lead in the first inning, thanks to Sean Coyle. Derrik Gibson and Shannon Wilkerson had a double and single respectively to begin the game against Taylor Rogers, and Coyle plated a run with a sacrifice fly to right field, which made it 1-0.
Owens was on the hill for Portland and the lefty settled into an early groove, right out of the gate. He retired the first nine men he faced, until Tony Thomas shot a triple to the wall in right-center to begin the fourth. Reynaldo Rodriguez followed two batters later with a double to left-center that tied the game at 1-1.
Rogers himself settled in and made it a pitcher's duel and tossed three scoreless after the first, keeping it tied heading to the fifth. The southpaw ran into trouble in the fifth and gave up back-to-back singles to Heiker Meneses and Gibson to begin the frame.
Shannon Wilkerson sacrificed the runners into scoring position with a bunt and Blake Swihart struck out to bring Coyle again to the plate for an RBI opportunity. The third baseman hit a high-chopper in front of the plate, which carried to the third baseman, but Coyle beat it for an infield single and Meneses scored to make it 2-1 Portland.
Owens (12-3) went right back to form after he allowed the run in the fourth and delivered a perfect fifth and struck out the side in the sixth. Big-O gave up a leadoff walk in the seventh, but struck out the final two hitters in the inning, strikeouts nine and ten on the day for Owens.
The lefty completed the eighth, and his final inning, with a strikeout to the former Sea Dog Thomas, his 11th of the day. Owens tied career-highs with the eight innings pitched and 11 strikeouts on the afternoon. His final line went eight innings, allowed the run on three hits; he walked one and struck out the 11.
Rogers (7-6) pitched well himself and completed seven innings; he gave up the two runs on eight hits, did not walk a batter and struck out four. Former Sea Dog Dan Turpen came out of the 'pen and pitched the eighth.
Swihart and Coyle struck out against the righty, but Michael Almanzar worked a two-out walk to spark a four-run rally. Dave Chester followed with a single and Keury De La Cruz hit a single to plate another run and made it 3-1.
Turpen hit Peter Hissey to load the bases for Meneses and the second baseman connected. He stroked a double down the line in left, cleared the bases, and made it 6-1 Sea Dogs.
Noe Ramirez was warming in the eighth for a potential save situation and came on with a little more breathing room in the ninth. The righty gave up a pair of singles to begin his outing, but struck out Kennys Vargas and induced a 6-4-3 game-ending double play to close it out.
The win sends the Portland record 30-games above .500 for the first time since 1995.
The Sea Dogs hit the road and will open up a four-game series against the Binghamton Mets Monday night at 6:35 PM from NYSEG Stadium. LHP Brian Johnson (7-1, 1.73) is set to go for the Sea Dogs and he will face a pitcher that has yet to be named for the B-Mets. Radio coverage begins at 6:15PM on the WPEI U.S. Cellular Sea Dogs Radio Network.