Richmond loses on Sunday, drops four of six on road trip in Akron

The Richmond Flying Squirrels had a few opportunities smothered in a 5-2 loss against the Akron RubberDucks Sunday afternoon at Canal Park.

The Flying Squirrels (57-62, 17-33) were held to six hits and went 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position. Akron (69-51, 29-22) scored five unanswered runs to take the series win.

With two outs and two runners on in the third inning, Tyler Fitzgerald crushed a fly ball off the left field wall for a two-RBI triple and drove Richmond to a 2-0 lead.

Facing Kyle Harrison in the fourth inning, Angel Martinez evened the score at 2-2 with a two-run homer to left field. Harrison finished the afternoon with seven strikeouts over five innings with three hits and two runs allowed.

Jhonkensy Noel led off the sixth inning with a double against Richmond reliever Ofelky Peralta (Loss, 0-1). Noel scored off a sacrifice fly from Martinez and pushed the RubberDucks to a 3-2 advantage.

The RubberDucks upped their lead to 5-2 in the eighth inning off a run-scoring double from Micah Pries and an RBI triple from Martinez. Martinez drove in four of the five Akron runs in a 2-for-3 performance.

Fitzgerald singled with two outs in the top of the ninth but Cade Smith (Save, 6) closed out the game with a groundout to secure the Akron win.

The RubberDucks used six total pitchers in the game and combined for 14 strikeouts against the Flying Squirrels. Brett Daniels (Win, 4-1) struck out two batters over 1.2 innings.

The Flying Squirrels are off Monday before starting a six-game series on Tuesday against the Harrisburg Senators, Double-A affiliate of the Washington Nationals, from August 30-September 4. On Tuesday, fans are invited to rock their favorite funky, crazy or patterned pants for Fancy Pants Night and the first 1,000 fans 15 and older will go home with their own Parney Pants Bobblehead presented by Richmond Area Honda Dealers. Gates open at 5:30 p.m. with first pitch scheduled for 6:35 p.m. at The Diamond.

Right-hander Kai-Wei Teng (5-10, 5.11) will start for Richmond opposed by Harrisburg left-hander Seth Romero (0-0, 0.00).

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.