Richmond Flying Squirrels score five in the fourth to beat Akron, 6-3

With a two-homer performance from Franklin Labour and a steady pitching performance, the Richmond Flying Squirrels defeated the Akron RubberDucks, 6-3, on Thursday night at The Diamond.

The Flying Squirrels (16-8) extended their winning streak to seven games, which is tied for the second-longest in franchise history.

The Flying Squirrels claimed a 5-0 lead in the fifth inning with five runs off four hits. Labour hammered a three-run home run to right that opened the scoring and Brandon Martorano followed with a two-RBI double.

The RubberDucks (11-13) closed the deficit to three in the six inning when Micah Pries had a two-RBI double against Richmond reliever Tyler Schimpf.

Labour extended the Richmond lead to 6-2 with a solo home run to right field in the sixth inning. It was the fourth time that a Flying Squirrels player has homered twice in a game this season and the fourth career multi-homer game for Labour.

The RubberDucks cut the deficit to 6-3 with a sacrifice fly by Julian Escobedo in the seventh inning.

Gray Fenter tossed 3.0 scoreless innings without allowing a hit and had three strikeouts. Blake Rivera (Win, 2-1) struck out a season-high four batters over 2.1 innings in his seventh appearance of the season. Taylor Rashi (Save, 1) closed out the night with a three-up, three-down ninth with two strikeouts.

Tanner Burns (Loss, 1-1) allowed one run over 3.2 innings with five strikeouts in his start for the RubberDucks.

On Friday, the Flying Squirrels will host RVA Day with an early first pitch scheduled for 1:05 p.m. Fans can enjoy Funnville Friday Happy Hour with two-dollar 12-ounce domestic beers at all concession stands and two-dollar fountain sodas at the Pepsi Fountain. Fans with a ticket from May 6th’s game will get free admission to Friday evening’s VCU Baseball game at 6:05pm. Fans must show their ticket to staff at gate for free entry.

Tickets are available online at SquirrelsBaseball.com/Tickets, by phone at 804-359-3866 or in person at the Flying Squirrels ticket office.