The Portland Sea Dogs (20-40) jumped out to a 5-0 lead over the Flying Squirrels (23-38) and didn’t look back in an 8-3 win to take the series opener at Hadlock Field.
The loss snapped the Squirrels winning streak at four consecutive games. Kyle Crick was hit with the loss as Portland pushed him from the game with two outs in the third inning. Ali Castillo gathered two more hits and extended his on base streak to 22 games in the defeat.
The Sea Dogs opened the series with a five-run first inning, sending eight men to the plate against Squirrels starter Kyle Crick. Portland’s first three batters reached to load the bases allowing Nate Freiman to deliver a sacrifice fly for a 1-0 lead. Cole Sturgeon followed with a run-scoring bunt. Jake Romanski made it a 3-0 lead on a single to leftfield and Rainel Rosario connected on a two-run double to complete the five run frame. Crick threw 27 pitches in the inning in an ominous start.
The Squirrels chipped away at the initial crevice with a pair of runs in the second off of Portland starter Keith Couch. Ricky Oropesa opened the inning with awalk and moved to third on a double off the wall form Carlos Moncrief. TJ Bennett then followed with a two-run double in his first career Double-A atbat.
Crickcontinued to struggle and was removed with two outs in the third inning. Andrew Benintendi started the third with his first Double-A homer to give Portland a 6-2 advantage. An error and a double allowed the third inning to continue and forced Crick from the game. Christian Jones entered in relief and stranded the pair of inherited runner to keep the game in tact. Crick suffered the loss and allowed five runs on eight hits over 2/13 innings. The righty hurled 55 pitches in his tenth start of the season.
The bullpen shouldered the load for the Squirrels, starting with Jones. The lefty Jones allowed one run over 2 1/3 innings of relief. He allowed just one run on one hit with a pair of strikeouts Chase Johnson, Preston Claiborne and Jake Smith pitched the final three innings for Richmond.
Couch(4-1) lasted seven innings for the Sea Dogs to earn hi3 23rd career win with Portland. Richmond picked up a run in the fifth when Ali Castillo singled, advanced to second on a stolen base scored on a Christian Arroyo single. That would be the last run allowed by Couch as he departed with a 7-3 advantage after seven innings.Portland added a run off Smith in the eighth by suing three walks and a wild pitch.
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