'Wolves Drop Two Straight to B-Mets
The SeaWolves lost 4-3 to Binghamton on Tuesday and have now dropped consecutive games in the wake of winning seven of their last eight.
Erie reliever Jared Gayhart gave up the decisive run to Kirk Nieuwenhuis in the seventh inning when he took a 3-2 pitch over the leftfield wall to give Binghamton its sole and final lead of the game.
"You're never happy when you lose a game, but the way it happened the last two days is a little frustrating," Andy Oliver said.
On Monday Erie (12-13) put together a furious rally and scored two runs in the bottom of the ninth inning to force extra-innings only to lose in the tenth when Binghamton hit a home run to win 7-5.
On the heels of his strongest start of the season, Oliver, the fourth ranked prospect in the Tigers' organization according to Baseball America, pieced together another strong game by allowing three runs over 5 2/3 innings, scattering five hits and striking out four.
The lefty ran through the Mets' line-up the first three innings with little trouble, needing to face just 11 batters to record the first ten outs.
But he began to run into trouble in the fourth when he lost command of his breaking ball. TheMets (16-9) finally broke Oliver's his armor when Nick Evans hit a homer that landed on the roof of the Erie Civic Center to Erie's early lead in half at 2-1.
"The first couple innings I felt good, but towards the fourth inning I couldn't get my breaking ball over the plate and they just started sitting on fastballs," Oliver said.
After allowing the two leadoff men to score in the sixth, Oliver was pulled in favor of Gayhart, who gave up what proved to be the winning run.
"As far as hitters go, (Nieuwenhuis) probably impressed me the most the month I've been here," Nevin said. "I think that was just one pitch that go away from (Gayhart) and to a great hitter."
Erie tried to fight their way back late, but got little going as the Binghamton bullpen pitched four scoreless innings to close out the game. The SeaWolves managed to put just two men on during the span.
"We got the leadoff hitter on a couple times and weren't able to do anything with it," Nevin said. "It's a credit to them; they did a good job."
Justin Henry had his best game of the year going 2-3 with a run scored. He helped Erie take a 3-1 lead when he led off the third inning with a triple on a ball hit down the leftfield line that careened off the wall into the bullpen, and later scored on an Andy Dirks double.
"I felt good today. I hit the ball hard and got a few to drop in there," Henry. "I felt better here the past few games, I've been hitting the ball hard lately. When you start hitting the ball hard, it starts falling in consistently."
By dropping consecutive games to Binghamton, Erie is in jeopardy of losing of its first series after winning its last five. The best they can do now against Binghamton is tie.
"It is frustrating. We played a good game today, but they got one more big hit than we did," Henry said. "Hopefully we can bounce back tomorrow."