Squirrels blow late lead, drop fourth straight

The Flying Squirrels (27-47) lost a 2-1 lead in the seventh inning and had their comeback efforts fall short in a 4-3 defeat against the B-Mets (30-42) on Saturday night at NYSEG Stadium. Hunter Cole and Tyler Horan both drilled solo home runs in the tough defeat for Richmond. The Squirrels plated a run in the ninth inning, but left the tying and go-ahead runners aboard to end the game. Binghamton standout first baseman Dominic Smith pulled the Mets ahead in the seventh inning with a game-changing three-run homer.

Sam Coonrod took the ball for Richmond and struck out the side to begin his second Double-A outing. The righty worked out of trouble in the second inning as the B-Mets loaded the bases with a single and a pair of walks. Coonrod then induced a groundball double play to end the frame and strand the runners. The righty used 39 pitches through his first two innings of scoreless work.

Outfielder Hunter Cole put Coonrod and the Squirrels ahead with a solo home run in the second inning off of B-Mets starting pitcher Casey Delgado. Cole launched his eighth homer of the season and his third of the road trip to give the Squirrels the 1-0 edge.

Binghamton threatened against Coonrod again in the fourth inning by drawing a pair of two-out walks. Coonrod then managed to work out of trouble and keep the 1-0 lead intact. The B-Mets eventually broke through with a run in the fifth inning to tie the game, 1-1. L.J. Mazzili led off with a single and Amed Rosario followed with an infield base hit. Christian Arroyo fielded the ball and faked a throw to first but threw the ball away trying to dupe the runner at second. The error moved runners to second and third base for Matt Oberste. With Oberste at the plate, a passed ball brought home the tying run and moved Rosario to third base. Coonrod then picked up a pair of lineouts and a grounder to strand the potential go-ahead run at third and end the fifth inning.

The tie was quickly broken by Tyler Horan to start the top of the sixth inning. Horan drilled ahomer to deep left field, his sixth of the year, to give Richmond a 2-1 advantage. The Horan homer was the last run Delgado allowed as he turned in six innings in a no-decision. Delgado left the game to start the seventh and was replaced by Kevin McGowan trailing 2-1.

Coonrod trotted back out to start the sixth inning for Richmond but was pulled with one out after hitting Stefan Sabol on his 99th pitch of the outing. Christian Jones relieved Coonrod and picked up a double play to end the sixth. Coonrod pitched 5 1/3 innings and allowed one unearned run on four hits. He walked five and struck out seven in the outing.

Richmond lost the lead in the bottom of the seventh inning as Derrick Gibson collected a pinch-hitsingle off Jones and moved to second via a sacrifice bunt. Jones was then lifted with two outs for Tyler Mizenko to face right-handed hitting Matt Oberste. Mizenko walked Oberste and yielded a three-run homer to Dominic Smith to give the Mets a 4-2 edge.

The Squirrels came back in the ninth inning with a leadoff double by Hunter Cole and a pinch-hit single delivered by Jeff Arnold, pulling to within a run. With Arnold at second and Darren Ford at first, Mets righty Luis Mateo struck out Ali Castillo to end the game and earn the save.