Rock Cats Take Two in One
New Britain, CT - The Rock Cats completed the comeback about 24 hours after Friday's first pitch was thrown, defeating the Trenton Thunder 3-2 in walk-off fashion, courtesy of a two-RBI single from 3B Brandon Waring.
Friday's suspended game picked up with two outs in the bottom of the eighth inning and C Matt Koch on second with New Britain down 2-1.
After the Cats exited the eighth and RHP Cole Johnson threw a scoreless ninth, it was Waring who took his turn as the walk-off hero.
Trenton reliever LHP Fred Lewis walked the first two batters in the bottom of the ninth and then gave up a single to DH Reynaldo Rodriguez to load the bases. Waring sent Lewis's offering past 3B Rob Segedin into shallow left, allowing both 2B Nate Hanson and 1B Kennys Vargas to score and give the Rock Cats the come from behind victory.
Johnson improves his record to 1-3, while Lewis was charged with the blown save (2) and the loss (0-3).
Game 2 - Following a 30 intermission, the Rock Cats took the field for the second time of the night and defeated Trenton 4-3 in front of 5,987 fans.
A twelve hit attack, led by DH Jairo Rodriguez's three and propelled New Britain to victory.
The Thunder drew first blood on a solo home run from 1B Peter O'Brien in the top of the fourth inning off of New Britain starter LHP Pat Dean.
The score would remain 1-0 in Trenton's favor until 1B Kennys Vargas hammered a solo home run high over the leftfield wall off of starter LHP Eric Wooten. The towering shot was Vargas' team-leading eleventh of the season.
SS Brad Boyer laced an opposite field single between third and short with runners on second and third, sending LF Mike Kvasnicka home and giving New Britain the lead in the bottom of the seventh. 2B Nate Hanson pushed DH Jairo Rodriguez across the plate in the following at-bat to make it 3-1 in the Rock Cats favor. Both runs were charged to Wooten, who exited before Boyer's at-bat.
Trenton made it a 3-2 game in the top of the eighth on a bloop single by 3B Rob Segedin, bringing in CF Mason Williams, who led off the inning with a single off of reliever RHP Mark Hamburger.
Kvasnicka put the Cats' up by two once again in the eighth on a double to deep right field, scoring RF Reynaldo Rodriguez.
Dean limited the Yankees affiliate to just the one run over seven innings of work, scattering five hits while walking one and striking out three. His record improves to 4-2, while reliever RHP Lester Oliveros earned his 9th save of 2014.
With the win, New Britain goes to .500 for the first time since April 9th, when they were 3-3. They have won 12 of their last 16 games since Memorial Day weekend.
Sunday is Father's Day at New Britain Stadium and will conclude Trenton's final regular season visit to New Britain this season. Rock Cats starter LHP Taylor Rogers squares off against RHP Bryan Mitchell. First pitch is slated for 1:35 p.m.