Serwa Dazzles as SeaWolves Best Yard Goats in Series Finale

HARTFORD, CT - Kenny Serwa took a no-hitter into the sixth inning on his way to a career-best seven innings of work to guide the Erie SeaWolves (31-14, 67-46) to a 5-4 win against the Hartford Yard Goats (16-29, 55-58) on Sunday afternoon at Dunkin' Park.

The knuckleballer got right into his groove in an early pitchers' duel by retiring the first seven that he faced before a one-out walk in the third gave the Yard Goats their only baserunner in the first three innings.

Hartford turned to Sam Weatherly for his second start as an opener of the week and the left-hander was dominant. Erie recorded just one hit in Weatherly's three innings and struck out seven times.

Cade Denton entered out of the bullpen for the fourth and the SeaWolves found their stride at the plate. Thayron Liranzo launched an opposite field home run to open the scoring, the switch hitter's 13th home run of the season.

Erie wasn't done in the middle innings as three more runs came across in the fifth. Roberto Campos started the rally with a one-out double, followed by an infield single from Joey Campagna. Seth Stephenson poked a single to left to bring in the first run of the inning and after a walk to Woody Hadeen, Zyhir Hope rocketed a single up the middle to give Erie a 4-0 lead.

Serwa went back to work generating soft contact. The right-hander only struck out two hitters in his seven innings of work, but also only allowed two hits. Hartford notched its first hit of the game in the sixth inning on a two-out soft single from Dyan Jorge.

The Yard Goats managed to plate a run against Serwa in the seventh after Braylen Wimmer started the inning with a double and came around on two groundouts.

Erie found some insurance in the ninth inning as Patrick Lee walked with one out, stole second base and came around to score on an error by Hartford second baseman Tevin Tucker.

That insurance turned out to be much needed as the Yard Goats scored three quick runs in the bottom of the ninth. Jared Thomas led off the inning with a walk and scored on a wild pitch after moving from first to third on a Braylen Wimmer single. After a pop out on the infield, Cole Messina powered his fifth home run of the season out to left field to cut the Erie lead to one. Tyler Owens entered from the SeaWolves bullpen and slammed the door after the first batter he faced reached on an error. Owens punched out pinch hitter and Eastern League hits leader Andy Perez to cap off the week with a fourth straight win.

The SeaWolves return to UPMC Park for a six-game homestand with the New Hampshire Fisher Cats starting on Tuesday at 6:05 PM.

Single-game tickets, suites, picnics, The Club by Synchrony events, and Bud Light Party Deck groups are now available by visiting SeaWolves.com, calling 814-456-1300, or visiting the UPMC Park Box Office in person.