May 25: Pries near historic night helps Ducks overpower Fisher Cats 11-8

RubberDucks Game Recap | Box Score

Akron RubberDucks (25-16) 11, New Hampshire Fisher Cats (17-23) 8

WP: Jerson Ramirez (2-1) LP: Luis Quinones (0-1) Save: Nic Enright (8)

Summary

A four-RBI game and near cycle from Micah Pries helped the Akron RubberDucks power past the New Hampshire Fisher Cats 11-8 on Wednesday night at Canal Park.

Turning Point

Falling behind by two runs in the first frame, Akron lead off the bottom half of the first with back-to-back walks. Brayan Rocchio followed with an RBI single to make it 2-1 New Hampshire. Another RBI single from George Valera plated Daniel Schneemann before a throwing error from right field on the hit allowed Rocchio to come around and score, giving the RubberDucks a 3-2 lead.

Mound Presence

Hunter Gaddis found himself behind early on a two-run homerun but got out of the inning retiring the next three batters. Gaddis showed glimpses of dominance at times tossing nine strikeouts, yet still allowed six runs. Gaddis’s final total was four and two thirds innings with six hits and six runs. Jerson Ramirez tossed an inning and a third scoreless. Kevin Kelly followed with a scoreless inning of work. Nic Enright came on to relief and gave up a two-run homerun in the eighth, cutting the RubberDucks lead to only a run. Enright proceeded to get the next seven batters out and closed the game with two strikeouts to secure the Akron victory.

Duck Tales

Following the lead taking throwing error, the RubberDucks were not finished scoring. Micah Pries smashed a two-run homerun over the left-centerfield fence to make it 5-2 Akron. This was followed up by another run, driven in on a single by Victor Nova to make it 6-2 Ducks. Valera continued the scoring into the second inning driving in one with a single. Pries continued the offensive out-pour with a two-run triple in the latter half of the inning giving the RubberDucks a 9-2 lead. Akron’s lead began to slowly slip away with New Hampshire bringing the score to 9-8 in the eighth. Daniel Schneemann added an insurance run in the bottom of the eighth with a sacrifice fly and Rocchio doubled in another giving Akron a 11-8 lead heading into the ninth.

Notebook

Pries was a single shy of hitting for the cycle, which keeps Bryson Myles as the last RubberDucks player to hit for the cycle in August 2015…Valera extended his hitting streak to a team-high eight games, in which he is 15-for-39 with 15 RBI…Game Time: 2:52 …Attendance: 1,882.

On the Pond

The RubberDucks will continue their six-game series with the New Hampshire Fisher Cats on Thursday, May 26 at 6:35 p.m. Left-hander Joey Cantillo (2-2, 2.25 ERA) will take the mound for Akron against Fisher Cats right-hander Hayden Juenger (0-2, 4.62 ERA). The game broadcast, powered by FirstEnergy, is on 640 WHLO, the 640 WHLO iHeartRadio channel, and akronrubberducks.com, and available on MiLB.TV. Tickets for all RubberDucks home games, are available at akronrubberducks.com/tickets.