SeaWolves Comeback Effort Falls Short on Saturday

The Erie SeaWolves weren’t able to continue their trend of late-game rallies on Saturday afternoon at UPMC Park, falling to the Binghamton Rumble Ponies 6-4.

Brad Bass took the mound for his first start of the season after working in relief for Erie. Carlos Cortes led off the game with a double to left field against Bass, and advanced to third base on a fielding error. Bass surrendered the unearned run in the frame on a sacrifice fly as Binghamton took the early lead. Bass (1-1) allowed only one more run over five innings, a solo home run to Manny Rodriguez in the third inning.

Binghamton pounced on the first Erie pitcher out of the bullpen, Billy Lescher. Lescher only collected one out in the sixth inning while giving up four runs, including a two-run double to Mark Vientos and a two-run home run to David Rodriguez. Henry Martinez was called on short notice to replace Lescher and pitched effectively, logging 2.2 scoreless innings. Angel De Jesus pitched in with a scoreless ninth inning for Erie.

Erie’s offense was silenced by Tylor Megill through five innings, only collecting three hits and striking out ten times. Riley Greene kick started the offense against Megill (2-0) in the sixth inning with a solo home run to right field, his fourth homer of the year. Jacob Robson and Josh Lester followed with base hits to expand the budding rally, and Kerry Carpenter drove in both with a double to left-center field before Binghamton went to the bullpen to end the rally.

The Binghamton bullpen continued to struggle, as Andrew Mitchell loaded the bases and allowed Kona Quiggle to drive in a run on a fly out in the eighth inning. Despite the pressure, though, Binghamton relievers were still able to finish out the afternoon.

Binghamton wins its second game of the season after opening 1-14. Erie will still have the chance to dominate the six-game series when it concludes on Sunday afternoon at 1:35 p.m. The game will feature a special SeaWolves tumbler cup giveaway to the first 250 fans in attendance, with each tumbler containing a mystery coupon for the SeaWolves team store. All fans are invited to play catch on the field after the game.