RubberDucks Fly Away with 4-2 Win

Reading, PA - In a matchup of the two top home run hitting teams in the Eastern League, it was the RubberDucks who prevailed in front of 6,442 at America's Classic Ballpark on Thursday night. After not leading in the first two games of the series, Akron's Luigi Rodriguez broke a 1-1 tie with a three-run blast to right in the sixth inning. And despite a solo home run from Jiandido Tromp for the third straight game in the ninth, the defending champs escaped with a 4-2 win to avoid the sweep.
In a rematch between Drew Anderson and Thomas Pannone from June 4 at Canal Park, both starters lived up to their reputations in the lowest scoring game of the series. The Fightin Phils actually got out to a fast start, getting a leadoff double from Zach Coppola in the bottom of the first. A sacrifice bunt from Scott Kingery pushed Coppola to third, and Carlos Tocci singled the first pitch from Pannone into right for a 1-0 lead.
The lefthander didn't allow much over the course of six-and-a-third innings, allowing just four more hits after the first while the Fightin Phils looked to add to the lead. Meanwhile, Anderson had the slimmest of leads going into the fifth until Yu Chang went deep for the second straight night, driving a leadoff home run to left to tie the score at one.
During his final inning in the sixth, Anderson (5-3) would put two runners on with a walk and a hit by pitch. That's when Rodriguez pulled a three-run homer over the right field wall, taking the home crowd out of it and giving the RubberDucks a 4-1 lead. Ranfi Casimiro replaced him and struck out four over 2.0 perfect innings in his Double-A debut, and Shane Watson worked a scoreless ninth to keep the game at 4-1.
Cameron Hill replaced Pannone (3-1) and got the last two outs in the seventh before going 1-2-3 in the bottom of the eighth. He recorded the first out in the ninth to make it six straight, a stretch which came to an end when Tromp drilled a high fastball just beyond the left field wall to pull the Fightins closer at 4-2. With the home run, Tromp became the first Fightin Phil to homer in three straight since Dylan Cozens from August 14-17, 2016. The comeback ended there, however, and David Speer recorded the last two outs for his third save.
America's Classic Ballpark is proud to be a part of Pennsylvania's Americana Region. Season tickets for the 2017 season are available online at Fightins.com, by phone at 610-370-BALL, and in-person at FirstEnergy Stadium. Follow the Fightin Phils on Twitter at @ReadingFightins and like them on Facebook viawww.facebook.com/fightins.