The Flying Squirrels (11-30) took out a season’s worth of frustration all in one night against the Erie SeaWolves (17-24) in a 9-0 win on Saturday night at The Diamond.
The victory ended Richmond’s 14-game losing streak, stopping one shy of the franchise record. Starter Matt Gage hurled eight innings of one-run ball to earn his first win of the season. Gage wasbacked by 16 hits, including two home runs from Ryder Jones. The Squirrels lifted back-to back homers twice in the commanding win and received four hits from Myles Schroder.
The win means that Squirrels VP Todd “Parney” Parnell can now shower and sleep in his own bed. Parney vowed earlier in the day to camp out on the Bullpen Bar and not change out of a Squirrels uniform until the streak ended. Richmond concludes the three game homestand on Sunday, May 22st at 12:05 PM with Brunch & Baseball.
Determined to end the losing streak at 14 games, the Squirrels pummeled Erie starting pitcher Josh Turley through the early innings. Myles Schroder and Christian Arroyo opened the first frame with consecutive base hits against the lefty. Tyler Horan then delivered the game’s first run with a double to left center field. Hunter Cole made it a 2-0 game on a sacrifice fly and Ryder Jones delivered an RBI double for a 3-0 lead.
Pitching with the lead, lefty Matt Gage dominated in his seventh start of the season. The lefty was nearly perfect through eight innings of work. Gage hit a batter with two outs in the first inning and then retired 17 consecutive batters into the seventh. JaCoby Jones broke up the no-hitter with a single to center field to start the eighth.
Erie’s Turley was not long for the game as he encountered more trouble in the third. Hunter Cole and Ryder Jones connected on back-to-back-homers for a 5-0 advantage. Turley (0-1) suffered the loss and allowed five runs on eight hits over three innings of work. Erie replaced Turley with Santiago Garrido and the reliever did not fair much better over two innings. The Squirrels tagged Garrido for four runs in the fifth inning to take a 9-0 lead. Ryder Jones and Ricky Oropesa rocked back-to-back homers to highlight the inning. It was the first multi-homer game of Jones’ career as he finished with a season-high four RBIs
Gage continued to chew through the SeaWolves vaunted offense. The Lefty needed just ten pitches to retire the side in the fourth inning and another ten pitches in the sixth. Gage did not hit a bump in the road until he walked Jeff McVaney with one out on the seventh. A double play erased McVaney and Gage needed just 80 pitches through seven innings. He came back out for the eighth and yielded the base hit to JaCoby Jones, ending the no-hit bid. Gage finished the eighth and Tyler Rogers pitched a scoreless ninth to end the game and secure the Squirrels second shutout win of the year.
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Chris Graham
