Senators down Squirrels in series opener

A star-studded pitching matchup landed in favor of Harrisburg (12-17) with a 6-4 win over the Richmond Flying Squirrels on Monday night at The Diamond.

The duel was cut short when Richmond starter Tyler Beede was plunked on the helmet with a curveball from Lucas Giolito while batting in the bottom of the fifth. Beede had hurled five scoreless innings, scored a run and also stole a base before being removed after the errant pitch. With Beede out of the game, the Squirrels (10-20) could not hold onto a 2-0 lead as CutterDykstra belted a three-run triple to give the Senators the lead in the seventh. Giolito earned his first win of the year for Harrisburg with a season-high six innings pitcher. Game two of the series is on Tuesday at 6:35 PM.

Tyler Beede dealt the first blow in the prospect showdown Monday night. Beede induced a pair of double plays in the first and second innings and then motivated the offense with a single off Giolito in the third inning. Beede then stole second base and scored the game’s first run on a base hit off the bat of Christian Arroyo. Arroyo had two hits in the effort.

Both right-handers cruised through the middle innings. Beede retired ten consecutive batters into the fifth and Giolito allowed just two hits through five innings. The pitcher’s duel was knocked off course however, when Giolito hit his counterpart Beede in the helmet with abreaking ball, ending the outing for Beede. Beede departed as the pitcher of record and allowed no runs on four hits with four strikeouts on 58 pitches.

The Squirrels added a run in the sixth inning off of Giolito. Christian Arroyo initiated the scoring again with his second base hit of the game. Austin Slater then thumped a double t0 deep left center field, plating Arroyo for the 2-0 lead.

Tyler Mizenko (0-1) replaced Beede to start the sixth and set the side down in order to begin his outing. Mizenko came back out for the seventh and was felled by a pair of soft singles to begin the inning. Mizenko was able to pick up a ground ball double play for the first two outs but hit Shawn Pleffner and walked Stephen Perez to load the bases. Both teams then swapped out players with Christian Jones relieving Mizenko to face pinch hitter Cutter Dykstra. With one swing of the bat, Dykstra gave Harrisburg a 3-2 lead as he cleared the bases with a triple to center. The pinch hit appearance ended the outing for Giolioto, but helped him earn the win. Giolito (1-2) lasted a season-high six innings and allowed just two runs on four hits in the effort. John Simms replaced Giolito and hurled a pair of scoreless innings.With Simms in command, the Senators added a pair of unearned runs against reliever Jake Smith in the eighth and another off of Mike Kickham in the ninth, taking a 6-2

Richmond made a last-ditch effort in the ninth and brought the winning run to the plate off reliever Koda Glover. Ryder Jones managed to work a walk with two outs to extend the game against Glover. Myles Schroder then reached on an infield single and pinch hitter Ricky Oropesa delivered a run-scoring base hit to left Eliezer Zambrano followed with a single to right, pulling Richmond to with two, 6-4. Rando Moreno then drove a ball todeep right field that was caught on the warning track to end the game.