Senators Shut Down by Musgrave in 4-1 Loss

On a night where the unseasonable April weather turned chilly, the Harrisburg offense didn't heat up until the ninth inning as Harrisburg lost 4-1 to the Hartford Yard Goats. The Senators (7-11) have now dropped five of their last six games.

Hartford starting pitcher Harrison Musgrave was dominant in setting the Senators down in order as he took a perfect game into the seventh inning. The southpaw struck out five as he retired the first 20 batters he faced until Shawn Pleffner singled into right field for the Senators' first hit. Musgrave struck out Chris Bostick to end the frame before he gave way to the Hartford bullpen.

"You've got to tip your cap. He pitched pretty good, moving it in and out," manager Matt LeCroy said. "We've got to get a little bit better at-bats early. Sometimes I feel like we're trying too hard to hit balls out of the park."

Reynaldo Lopez collared the loss as the right-hander worked six solid innings for the Senators. Lopez (0-3) allowed four runs on seven hits and two walks while striking out six. Lopez continued his early season issues surrendering the long ball as he gave up his fifth home run of the season, a solo shot to Raimel Tapia that pushed the Hartford lead to 4-0.

The Yard Goats' first two hitters in the batting order did the brunt of their damage as Tapia and David Dahl reached base six times and scored all four runs.

Dakota Bacus worked two perfect innings in relief striking out two and setting down the final six Yard Goat batters of the game.

"That was the best he's been all year," LeCroy said. "He threw a good changeup for one. I hadn't seen that all year. And he threw his fastball for strikes which he's had problems doing."

"For him, he's got to throw it over and I think he knows he's struggled in those big spots throwing strike one," the skipper continued. "It just shows you if you throw it over, he's got good enough stuff to get people out."

Harrisburg strung together three hits in the final frame as Zach Collier, Rafael Bautista, and Wilmer Difo all singled to push a run across and put the Senators on the board. That brought up Pleffner who represented the tying run at the plate, but he grounded into a double play to end the rally and the game.

Harrisburg looks to avoid the sweep in the final games of the series at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday night. The scheduled starting pitchers is a match-up of pitching prospects for the Nationals and Rockies organizations as Lucas Giolito faces off against Kyle Freeland.