Ben Lively fans 9 to help Fightins win series

With so much going on in sports Wednesday night, Richmond Flying Squirrels' pitcher Ray Black sent out a playful tweet before the game: 

Everyone is talking about win 73 and Kobe, you realize the @GoSquirrels and @ReadingFightins are playing tonight

- Ray Black (@rayblack37) April 13, 2016

And while it might not have been the likes of Kobe Bryant's last game or the Golden State Warriors trying for record-setting win No. 73, history was made on a minor level in Baseballtown.

Ben Lively struck out nine Flying Squirrels that tied the most strikeouts he has had in a game with the Reading Fightin Phils. He struck out nine on May 3, 2015 against the Portland Sea Dogs.

That success that came off of 94 pitches, 64 of them being strikes, put the Fightins in a position to win. Something they capitalized on to defeat the Flying Squirrels, 6-4, and to win the three-game series.

Lively has found something lethal in his pitching. In his season debut, the 2013 fourth-round pick struck out seven in six innings against the Portland Sea Dogs. He now has 16 strikeouts in his first 11 innings pitched. That's the best total in two games he has had since he struck out 20 in two games, pitching 12 combined innings, for Double-A Bakersfield Blaze in 2014. 

Lively even found success offensively, going 2-for-2 at the plate. He had two of the Fightins' 13 hits.

J.P. Crawford had one of the biggest hits early on when he bombed a pitch from Richmond's Tyler Beede to make a splash into the pool. Only Christian Marrero could one up that when he pinched hit and hit a three-run home run to put the Fightins into the lead, and they never looked back.

Edubray Ramos closed the game for the Fightins to pick up his first save of the season. Ramos went two innings and struck out two. While Lively had success, Ulises Joaquin picked up his first win of the season for Reading. 

The Fightins (4-3) will now leave Reading for the first time this season and head out west to face the Harrisburg Senators for a four-game series. Former Senator Nick Pivetta will take the mound tomorrow at 6:30 p.m. to face right-hander John Simms (0-0, 1.80 ERA).