The Portland Sea Dogs (24-43) spoiled the Double-A debut of Richmond right-hander Sam Coonrod, taking game two of the series 10-3 in front of a capacity crowd at The Diamond.
Coonrod pitched well and worked 6 2/3 innings while taking the loss. Richmond struggled with Sea Dogs left fielder AnueryTavarez as the speedy outfielder had five of the 14 Portland hits in the win.
The Squirrels turned to right-hander Coonrod to start the middle game of the series on Saturday. Coonrod, making his Double-A debut, faced just one hitter over the minimum through the first three innings and needed just 44 pitches in that span. The righty picked up his first strikeout as a member of the Squirrels to start the game and another to open the second inning.
Portland gave spot starter fAustin Maddox a 2-0 lead with a pair of runs in the fourth inning. Anuery Tavarez connected on his second of five hits in the outing to start the frame. Andrew Benintendi followed with a single and Cody Decker delivered a sacrifice Fly to make it a 1-0 contest. Two batters later, Jake Romanski laid down a sacrifice squeeze to score Benintendi for a 2-0 lead.
Maddox made it through four scoreless innings until he reached his pitch limit to start the fifth. Lefty Nikk Turley replaced Maddox and tossed two innings to earn thewin. The Sea Dogs stretched the lead to 3-0 an RBI triple from Tavarez in the fith inning. Coonrod walked a pair of batters to set up the run, two of three walks on the night.
Portland pushed ahead 5-0 and forced Coonrod from the game with two outs in the seventh inning. Tzu-Wei Lin doubled with two outs and Sean Coyle walked to end the outing for Coonrod. Left Christian Jones then entered and allowed both inherited runners to score to close the line on Coonrod. The righty lasted 6 2/3 innings on 105 pitches and allowed the five runs on seven hits in taking the loss.
Richmond returned fire with a trio of runs in the bottom of the seventh. Hunter Cole walked and Myles Schroder singled to end the night for Turley. Luis Ysla then entered and struck out Steve Lerud for out number one. Ali Castillo put Richmond on the board with a sacrifice fly to make it a 5-1 deficit. DarrenFord and Christian Arroyo then collected back-to-back singles for a pair ofruns and a 5-3 score.
That was as close as the Squirrels would get as Portland put up a pair of unearned runs in the seventh and three more in the ninth. Andrew Benintendi put the game out of reach with a two-run homer in the ninth off Jose Casilla.
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Chris Graham
