Kokoska, Hill, Ulloa highlight Yard Goats victory

Kokoska, Hill, Ulloa Highlight Yard Goats Victory

Binghamton, NY - Zack Kokoska homered, doubled and had two RBI, GJ Hill homered, singled and knocked in two runs and reliever Fidel Ulloa struck out the side in the ninth inning to nail down a 5-3 victory over the Binghamton Rumble Ponies Thursday night at Mirabito Stadium in Binghamton. Hartford (13-16) has won two of the first three games in the six-game series.

Starter Eiberson Castellano notched his second win of the season against two defeats, allowing one run over five innings. He struck out five and walked two. Cade Denton pitched two innings of one-run baseball, before Ulloa slammed the door on the Mets affiliate (11-19) with his stellar ninth inning, after permitting a two-out run in the eighth. The 6-2 right hander with the nasty splitter struck out five batters over two innings to pick up his second save.

Binghamton nicked Castellano with a run in the first inning, when Chris Suero walked, stole second, stole third and scored on catcher Bryant Betancourt's throw into left field. The lefty hitting Kokoska swatted his fourth home run of the year over the right field fence on the first pitch of the third inning to tie the game, and the Goats never looked back. Hartford took the lead for good in the fifth, when Kokoska's double over the head of the center fielder scored Conner Capel, who opened the inning with a double. The Yard Goats tacked on three more runs in the seventh on back-to-back lead off walks, a wild pitch and a towering home run to right by Hill, his first homer of the season. The Rumble Ponies made it interesting, scoring a run on a sacrifice fly by Suero in the seventh and an RBI-double by Matt Ridick in the eighth.

Kokoska and Hill each had two hits and two RBI, while the red-hot hitting Benny Montgomery added two singles to pace Hartford's eight-hit attack.

The series continues Friday night (6:07 PM). RHP Jake Brooks, the Colorado Rockies April minor league pitcher of the month, will start for Hartford, while LHP Jonathan Santucci, a Leominster, MA native, will hurl for Binghamton. The game will be broadcast on the free Audacy app, iHeartRadio app, Yard Goats website and streamed on MiLB.TV.