Kai-Wei Teng’s record-breaking outing and five home runs drove the Richmond Flying Squirrels to a 10-3 win over the Erie SeaWolves Friday night at The Diamond.
Teng (Win, 6-12) notched the Flying Squirrels’ franchise record for single-season strikeouts at 169 with his nine-strikeout performance while tying a career-high seven innings. Teng also captured the lead for the most strikeouts in the Eastern League this year in his start.
Brett Auerbach led off the bottom of the first inning with a solo home run to push Richmond (65-70, 25-41) to a 1-0 lead. It was the 17th home run of the season for Auerbach and his fourth hit over two games in the series.
Richmond extended its advantage to 2-0 in the second when Riley Mahan hit a solo home run against Erie starter Ty Madden (Loss, 2-2).
After Carter Aldrete doubled with one out in the fifth, Ricardo Genoves crushed a two-run homer to left-center field to give the Flying Squirrels a four-run advantage.
Erie (79-57, 40-27) cut the deficit to 4-2 in the sixth inning. With the bases loaded, Teng threw a wild pitch that score Dane Myers from third and Quincy Nieporte hit a sacrifice fly to center field.
Aldrete doubled again in the seventh inning and Genoves launched his second homer of the game in the next at-bat, a two-run shot to left field to push Richmond ahead at 6-2. It was Genoves’ seventh home run with Richmond and the 13th multi-homer game for the Flying Squirrels this season.
Andrew Navigato drove a solo home run to left field in the eighth to close the score to 6-3.
Richmond answered with four runs in the bottom of the eighth to widen their lead to 10-3. Mahan punched an RBI double to Will Wilson from second and Aldrete blasted a three-run homer for his third hit of the night.
Melvin Adon held the SeaWolves scoreless in the bottom of the ninth inning to secure the Richmond win.
The Flying Squirrels continue the Richmond 34 Legacy Weekend on Saturday and the team will don commemorative Richmond 34 Legacy jerseys which will be auctioned with proceeds going to Flying Squirrels Charities and the Richmond 34 Legacy scholarship fund. Plus, In-Your-Face Fireworks will launch after the ballgame.
Right-handed pitcher Keaton Winn (2-2, 3.91) will start for Richmond opposed by right-hander Wilmer Flores (5-4, 3.24) for Erie.
Tickets are available online at SquirrelsBaseball.com/Tickets, by phone at 804-359-3866 or in person at the Flying Squirrels ticket office.
The Flying Squirrels will host their first playoff game since 2014 on Thursday, September 22 at The Diamond. Tickets for all potential playoff games in Richmond are on sale now at SquirrelsBaseball.com.
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Chris Graham
