Yard Goats Win Third Straight Game

August 31, 2018
Final: Hartford Yard Goats 3, New Hampshire Fisher Cats 1     
WP: Evan Grills (4-5)
LP: T.J. Zeuch (9-5)
SV: Matt Pierpont (31)
T: 2:35
ATT: 4,837

Yard Goats Win Third Straight Game
Manchester, NH- The Hartford Yard Goats defeated the New Hampshire Fisher Cats by the score of 3-1 on Friday night at Northeast Delta Dental Stadium in Manchester, New Hampshire. Evan Grills fired six scoreless innings and Matt Pierpont recorded a four out save, his Eastern League leading 31st, as the Yard Goats won for the third straight time. Hartford scored two runs in the first inning on four consecutive singles, including RBI hits by Roberto Ramos and Drew Weeks. It was the first game of a four game weekend series, the final series for the Yard Goats this season. The victory snapped a seven game losing skid against the Fisher Cats who had won 16 of the previous 18 games against Hartford.
The Yard Goats scored two runs in the first inning on four straight singles off Fisher Cats starter T.J. Zeuch. Sam Hilliard began the one-out rally with an infield single followed by a hit from Brian Mundell. Roberto Ramos then cracked a single into centerfield scoring Hilliard from second base and giving Hartford a 1-0 lead. Drew Weeks kept the line moving with a solid single to center scoring Mundell from second base to make it 2-0. Ramos was erased trying to go from first to third on the same play.
Meanwhile, Yard Goats starter Evan Grills was terrific over six innings of work to record his second win in three starts. He pitched around a two out double in the first inning and went on to retire 11 consecutive batters from the first to fifth innings. The lefty from Whitby, Canada, sat down 18 of 21 batters faced and registered six strikeouts.
The Fisher Cats scored their only run in the seventh inning on Pat Cantwell's sacrifice fly to make it a 2-1 game. Former Yard Goat Forrest Wall reached on an infield single in the eighth inning and stole second base. Hartford closer Matt Pierpont was called upon in the eighth inning and struck out Bo Bichette to end the inning. The Yard Goats scored a run on a wild pitch in the ninth inning and Pierpont worked around two singles to record his 31^st save of the season.            
The Yard Goats continue the four game series against the New Hampshire Fisher Cats on Saturday night (7:05 PM) at Northeast Delta Dental Stadium. The game will be broadcast on AM 1410 WPOP and streamed on newsradio.1410.com and MiLB.com.