(Richmond, VA) - Playing their seventh doubleheader of the season, the Reading Fightin Phils got a chance to take the field on a beautiful Friday night at The Diamond. They came up just short against lefthander Garrett Williams for a 3-2 loss in game one, but bounced back with a
(Richmond, VA) - Playing their seventh doubleheader of the season, the Reading Fightin Phils got a chance to take the field on a beautiful Friday night at The Diamond. They came up just short against lefthander Garrett Williams for a 3-2 loss in game one, but bounced back with a 3-0 shutout in the nightcap to earn the split.
Game One Recap :
The Fightins nearly struck first in game one when Grenny Cumana led off the second with a walk and Cornelius Randolph followed by getting plunked with a 2-1 pitch. Williams wasn't fazed by the brief lack of control however, and proceeded to struck out the next three hitters to keep the game scoreless.
Looking for his third win in his backyard ballpark, Henrico native David Parkinson only had one inning that got him in trouble in the home second. He walked Jonah Arenado and Brett Austin on just eight pitches, then loaded the bases when Williams bunted a single beyond the mound towards shortstop. One swing of the bat from Ryan Howard changed the game, with the shortstop coming through with a two-out triple on the eighth pitch of the at-bat for a 3-0 lead.
Parkinson (6-5) struck out seven over four innings, and in his return to Reading, lefthander Josh Tols spun two scoreless innings with a strikeout in both the fifth and sixth. The Fightins comeback started in the third when Parkinson worked a walk, and after advancing to third on a couple of wild pitches, Alec Bohm doubled him home to make it 3-1. Bohm later led off the sixth with a single, and after a one-out single from Cumana with a wild pitch sprinkled in, Cornelius Randolph cut the deficit to 3-2 with a sacrifice fly to left.
Righthander Ryan Halstead got the final out in the sixth, and Raffi Vizcaino locked down his second save despite walking pinch-hitter Josh Stephen with two outs in the top of the seventh.
Game Two Recap :
Another lefthanded starting pitching matchup between Caleb Baragar and Damon Jones got game two started at 7:42. Jones' fourth start began with a pair of walks in a 24-pitch first inning, but the lefthander navigated through four scoreless innings. He allowed just two singles while finishing with six strikeouts, eventually handing the ball to Grant Dyer for just his third appearance.
In one of the biggest at-bats of the night, Darick Hall drew a one-out walk against Baragar with the game still scoreless in the top of the sixth. Two batters later, Randolph sliced a single into left center for his second hit to move Hall from first to third on a close play. Luke Williams turned in the game-winner with a seven-pitch at-bat that resulted in a hard two-RBI single into left. And Arquimedes Gamboa did the same with an eight-pitch at-bat that produced a run-scoring single for a 3-0 advantage.
Dyer (1-0) fanned a pair over two scoreless innings of relief, and Addison Russ wrangled his 12th save with a 1-2-3 seventh that featured a pair of strikeouts. The game ended on a dropped third strike to pinch-hitter Peter Maris , with catcher Austin Bossart firing a bullet down to first base from the backstop for the Fightins fourth shutout of the season.
America's Classic Ballpark is proud to be a part of Pennsylvania's Americana Region. Season tickets for the 2019 season are available online at Fightins.com, by phone at 610-370-BALL, and in-person at the Weidenhammer Ticket Office at FirstEnergy Stadium. Follow the Fightin Phils on Twitter at @ReadingFightins, Instagram at @fightins, and like them on Facebook via www.facebook.com/fightins.
