Sturgeon Leads Sea Dogs to 6-5 Win in 16 Innings

Portland, Maine- The Portland Sea Dogs (29-51) walked-off with a 6-5 win in a 16-inning marathon over the New Hampshire Fisher Cats (37-40) in a game that began on Thursday night at Hadlock Field and ended five hours and nine minutes later at 12:14 AM on Friday morning.

Outfielder Cole Sturgeon (W, 1-0) earned the win with three scoreless innings of relief and scored the winning run in the bottom of the 16th on a wild pitch by Cory Burns (L, 2-5). It was the longest game both teams had played this season.

New Hampshire jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the second inning on a sac fly from John Murphy, then added to their lead in the third on a solo homer by Dalton Pompey (and an RBI single by Dwight Smith, Jr. to make it 3-0.

Austin Bibens-Dirkx held the Sea Dogs scoreless through five innings and recorded two quick outs in the sixth when the Sea Dogs rallied. After a wall ball double by Jantzen Witte and a single from Sam Travis, Bibens-Dirkx was lifted for Luis Perez to set up a lefty-lefty matchup against Carlos Asuaje. But Asuaje would deliver an RBI single to make it a 3-1 game, then Manuel Margot hit a two-run double to tie the game at three.

New Hampshire answered in the very next half inning off of Williams Jerez, when Dalton Pompey connected for a two-out single - his third hit of the game - to give New Hampshire the 4-3 advantage.

Portland would answer back in the bottom of the seventh. With two outs and runners on second and third, Jantzen witte turned around a Jimmy Cordero fastball to score Jake Romanski and Marco Hernandez and give Portland their first lead of the night at 5-4.

Mike Augliera worked five innings in the start for Portland and allowed three runs (two earned) on seven hits, walking none and striking out four.

Trailing 5-4, New Hampshire rallied in the ninth off of Madison Younger, who had not allowed an earned run since May 29th. After a leadoff walk to Jorge Flores and a sac bunt by Shane Optiz, Dalton Pompey hit an RBI single for his fourth hit of the night to tie the game 5-5.  

It would remain deadlocked until seven innings later, when the Sea Dogs loaded the bases with nobody out against Cory Burns before he issued a wild pitch while facing Jantzen Witte to allow Sturgeon to plate the winning run.

The series concludes tomorrow night at Hadlock Field, first pitch is scheduled for 6:00 PM. Heri Quevedo (0-4, 6.86) will make the start for the Sea Dogs, while Casey Lawrence (6-8, 5.18) takes the mound for New Hampshire. Pregame coverage begins live on the WPEI U.S. Cellular Sea Dogs Radio Network at 5:40 PM.