Sea Dogs Walk-Off with Thrilling 13-12 Win!

PORTLAND, Maine - The Portland Sea Dogs (22-12) battled back from a three run deficit and scored four in the ninth to down the New Hampshire Fisher Cats (15-20) 13-12 on Sunday at Hadlock Field. The two teams combined for 25 runs on 37 hits in the nine-inning affair.

The 'Dogs found themselves on the wrong end of a three-run, 12-9, deficit as the Mother's Day marathon of a game entered the bottom of the ninth inning. Mookie Betts and Deven Marrero worked walks to begin the inning against Tony Davis, before he was lifted for Dustin Antolin. 

The New Hampshire righty followed suit and walked Travis Shaw, which loaded the bases to begin his outing. Carlos Rivero was the fourth batter of the inning and punched a single to right, which plated two and pulled the Sea Dogs to within one at 12-11. 

Henry Ramos was next and fouled off a bunt attempt, but got the second try down and reached with an infield single. Matt Spring delivered a game-tying sacrifice fly to center that plated Shaw and made it 12-12. 

Heiker Meneses was the next and final batter for Portland. The third baseman ripped a ball through the hole on the left side of the infield, Rivero scored and the Sea Dogs took home the 13-12 walk-off victory. The win was first for Portland when trailing after eight innings. 

Robby Scott (4-1) earned the win in relief as he delivered a scoreless ninth inning. Antolin took the loss for the Fisher Cats as he was charged for the final two runs during his one-third of an inning.

The Sea Dogs offense came out firing on all cylinders against New Hampshire's Matt Boyd and plated five runs over the first two innings. 

Betts, Marrero, and Shaw began the game with three straight singles, the final of which plated Betts and made it 1-0 Portland. Rivero worked a walk to load the bases after the Shaw RBI single and two batters later Spring made it 2-0 with a sacrifice fly to right. 

Three more runs crossed the plate for the Sea Dogs in the second and Portland held a five-run advantage after the pair of innings. With two on and nobody out Betts hit an RBI single, which scored Derrik Gibson and Rivero followed with an RBI single of his own to make it 4-0. The 'Dogs loaded the bases and Spring worked a walk to force home the final run of the inning. Boyd lasted just the first five outs and gave up the five runs on six hits, four walks and one strikeout. 

New Hampshire would be down, but certainly not out on the wild Sunday affair. The 'Cats bounced back against Mickey Pena and the Sea Dogs in the third. Andy Burns and A.J. Jimenez each had RBI singles that cut the deficit to three. In fourth New Hampshire would tie it on four hits and a sacrifice fly. 

Gabe Jacobo hit the sacrifice fly, which scored Kevin Nolan from third and pulled the visitors to within two. Brian Van Kirk chipped in with a run scoring single before Jon Berti tied it with a triple to center. 

Portland would keep the seesaw battle going with another run in the bottom of the fourth off of Randy Boone and took the 6-5 lead. Rivero landed at second after a wind-aided pop up fell in the outfield for a double and was driven home on a double to right-center off the bat of Henry Ramos. 

The two squads each traded a pair of runs in the fifth and made it 8-7 in favor of the hometown 'Dogs. In the top of the inning, back-to-back doubles by Jimenez and Brad Glenn plated the first of the runs, and a throwing error by Betts allowed the second to score and gave New Hampshire the 7-6 lead. Pena was responsible for the seven runs, which he gave up on 10 hits and a walk. 

Portland bounced back in the bottom of the fifth when Shaw launched a two-run bomb to into the U.S. Cellular Pavilion and gave Portland the lead back at 8-7. The home run came off of Richard Bleier and was his sixth of the season. 

Again, the lead was very short-lived for the 'Dogs as New Hampshire took a 9-8 lead in the top of the sixth. Berti was at it again and hit a laser of a solo home run over the Maine Monster to tie it up against Mike McCarthy. Glenn gave the 'Cats the lead with an RBI single that scored Jimenez.

Portland would get one back and tied it at 9-9 with another run in the bottom of the sixth. Ramos led off the frame with a single and scored three batters, and a balk, later on Gibson's RBI single. 

Pitching was at a premium Sunday afternoon as the Sea Dogs used four pitchers and the Fisher Cats five. McCarthy went two innings and gave up five before giving way to Jose Valdez who stemmed the tide with two scoreless innings of relief for Portland. 

Boone went two and one-third for the 'Cats and allowed just one run on four hits. Bleier gave up three runs over his three innings before Davis was roughed up for two runs in his inning of work. 

The Sea Dogs offense was tremendous again Sunday. All nine hitters had at least a hit, seven hitters had a multi-hit game, and seven players had at least one RBI. Betts extended his on-base streak to 62 straight games, 67 including playoffs, and 32 straight to begin his Double-A career. 

 

The Sea Dogs have an off-day Monday before resuming action on Tuesday in the opener of a three-game series against the New Britain Rock Cats at 6:35 PM from New Britain Stadium. RHP Mike Augliera (2-3, 4.42) is slated to get the start for Portland against New Britain's LHP Taylor Rogers (2-3, 6.46). Radio coverage begins at 6:15 PM on the WPEI U.S. Cellular Sea Dogs Radio Network and www.seadogs.com. MILB.TV coverage begins at 6:25 PM.