Homers Lead to Sweep of Rock Cats, 7-4

NEW BRITAIN, Conn. - The Fisher Cats belted three home runs on Sunday afternoon to power their way past the New Britain Rock Cats, 7-4, at New Britain Stadium. The three homers capped a three-game Fisher Cats (22-22) sweep and backed Marcus Stroman to a victory in his return from a 50-game suspension.

Brad Glenn was the first Fisher Cat to knock it out of the park for Stroman. With two outs in the third, Clint Robinson doubled to right field. Glenn followed with a mammoth home run - his third - to deep left field to give the Fisher Cats a 2-0 lead.

In the fifth, it was Ricardo Nanita who took starter B.J. Hermsen (L; 1-4) deep, a two-run shot to right field to plate Kevin Pillar for a 4-0 lead.

While the Fisher Cats built that lead, Stroman was dazzling. The righty hurled five scoreless, blowing away several hitters with a fastball registering in the low-to-mid-nineties. In his first pro start, Stroman struck out six, allowing four hits and a walk.

New Hampshire added to the lead with two more runs in the seventh against the Rock Cats' bullpen. Robinson delivered an RBI single to center to score Nanita with the first run. After a bounce out by Glenn, Brian Van Kirk's double pushed the lead to 6-1.

New Hampshire ended up needing the insurance runs because the Rock Cats scored three times in the eighth against Matt Wright. They ended up bringing the tying run to the plate before Joel Carreno ended the eighth-inning outburst.

Kevin Nolan homered in the ninth to cap the scoring for the Fisher Cats at 7-4. Carreno put two runners on in the bottom of the inning before a line drive double play ended the game.

Robinson led the Fisher Cats' 11-hit attack with a three-hit game. Nolan smacked his second homer of the series as part of a 2-4 afternoon. Van Kirk was on the bases three times, adding an RBI in the win.

After sweeping the Rock Cats, the Fisher Cats now head to Portland for the second series of the road trip. Marcus Walden (2-4, 2.96) starts the opener on Monday night against knuckleballer Charlie Haeger (1-0, 3.45) at 6 p.m. Radio coverage begins at 5:45 p.m. with Tom Gauthier on the WGIR Fisher Cats Radio Network and www.nhfishercats.com.

New Hampshire returns home to play New Britain on Friday night May 24 at 7:05pm. An Atlas Fireworks Show will follow the game and fans can buy one ticket, get one free, courtesy of ENH Power. For tickets and information, visit www.nhfishercats.com.