Richmond right-hander Austin Fleet was spectacular over eight scoreless innings as the Flying Squirrels (63-41) completed a three-game sweep of the Akron RubberDucks (57-48) with a, 2-0, victory on Wednesday afternoon at Canal Park. It marked the second shutout of the series for the Squirrels as they held the second-place RubberDucks to just two runs in the series. Richmond finished their season-series with Akron holding a 6 ½ game lead in the Western Division. The Squirrels also claim the season-series with Akron, taking four of the seven games between the two clubs.
Richmond opened the scoring with an unearned run against lefty Shawn Morimondo in the first inning. Kelby Tomlinson led off the ballgame with a single. Tyler Graham followed with a ground ball to the shortstop, Tony Wolters. He made a poor throw to second base, and his error put runners on the corners with nobody out. Graham then broke for second base. Catcher Alex Lavisky threw to second where Graham was safe. Tomlinson made for the plate and was thrown out by second baseman Ronny Rodriguez. However, Graham then stole third base. Matt Duffy knocked him in with a groundout for a 1-0 lead.
Morimando (1-1) faced no further adversity and worked briskly through six innings. He allowed just the lone unearned run on two hits. He walked two, struck out two and took the hard-luck loss.
As good as Morimando was, Fleet was better. He worked eight scoreless innings, limiting the RubberDucks to just five hits – all singles. He walked none and struck out three. It marked the longest outing of the season for Fleet as he earned his eighth win of the year.
The Squirrels squeezed across a second run in the ninth inning. Angel Villalona knocked in pinch-runner Skyler Stromsmoe with a single to right field. Stromsmoe was running for Devin Harris who has singled to start the inning against right-hander Trey Haley.
Left-hander Phil McCormick had no trouble in the ninth inning, retiring the side in order to earn his first save of the season.
The finale of the three-game series is scheduled for 12:05 p.m. on Tuesday night at Canal Park. Richmond RHP Austin Fleet (7-1, 3.03) will make the start against Akron LHP Shawn Morimando (1-0, 1.50). The Flying Squirrels Pregame Warmupbegins at 11:35 a.m. on Sports Radio 910 and SportsRadio910.com.
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