Squirrels streak, scoreless game snapped in 12th

Erie’s Steve Moya delivered a game-winning double in the 12th inning on Wednesday night, snapping a scoreless contest and ending the Flying Squirrels five-game winning streak. Tied 0-0 throughout, Moya connected on the double off of Vic Black to give Erie a 1-0 win and avoid the series sweep. Starting pitchers Cory Taylor and Matt Hall each turned in seven shutout innings, but received no-decisions in the contest. The Squirrels won the series, 2-1, and will travel to Trenton to begin the final road series of the season on Friday night at Arm & Hammer Park.

Erie’s offense consistently applied pressure in the latter innings, but failed to score. The SeaWolves loaded the bases in the sixth, seventh ninth and 11th innings and were denied each time. The Richmond bullpen trio of Jarret Martin (1.0 IP), Tyler Cyr (1.0 IP) and Cody Hall (2.0 IP) backed Taylor to keep Erie off the board.

Taylor, making his third start of the year against Erie, authored seven more scoreless innings against the SeaWolves in a no-decision on Wednesday evening. Taylor pitched mostly without incident through the first five innings, using just 42 pitches in that span. The righty evaded bases loaded situations in both the sixth and seventh innings to finish off his outing. His seven shutout innings ran his scoreless streak against Erie to 21.

Martin replaced Taylor in the eighth and turned in a one-inning effort. Martin punched out a pair and turned things over the Tyler Cyr in the ninth, still without a run on the board. Erie loaded the bases against Cyr on a double, walk and error. With two outs, Cyr then battled with and stuck out Harold Castro in an at bat where the winning run almost scored multiple times.

Taylor and Erie’s Matt Hall engaged in a pitcher’s duel throughout the series finale. Hall, working with a premium breaking ball, kept Richmond without a hit through the first four innings. The lefty pitched around four walks early on and used the curve to strikeout five batters in the first four innings.
Erie committed a pair of errors and coupled with four walks from Hall allowed Richmond a few scoring opportunities. The Squirrels stranded a pair of runners in the second and two more in the fourth. Caleb Gindl collected the first Squirrels hit of the day – a triple in the fifth – but was left aboard. Myles Schroder was also stranded after he legged out a double in the sixth.

Hall tossed seven scoreless innings for the SeaWolves but still received a no-decision. The lefty threw a season-high 112 pitches and struck out seven in the outing. He allowed three hits and walked four.

Richmond was held to just six hits in the effort. Erie stranded a total of 16 runners on base.