B-Mets 9, Portland 7

Mike Antonini had his best stuff of the season going 6.2 innings giving up only a run and the B-Mets offense exploded for 9 runs on 12 hits against the Portland pitching staff to win 9-7. The Sea Dogs scored six runs in the eighth to make things interesting, but Julio De La Cruz nailed down his second save of the series with a scoreless 1.2 innings of relief.Portland (13-13) was first to crack the scoreboard using a two-out RBI double from Aaron Bates to drive home Ryan Khoury to lead 1-0.After Lucas Duda singled to open the second, D.J. Wabick came up with one out and drove a 1-1 offering from starter Blake Maxwell over the right field wall for a two-run bomb to give the B-Mets the lead for good at 2-1. It was Wabick’s first home run of the season.In the third, Binghamton (13-12) added three more runs thanks to a two-run double by Duda followed by an RBI single by Shawn Bowman to break it open, 5-1.Binghamton added singled runs in the fifth and seventh and plated a two-spot in the sixth to lead 9-1 going into the eighth inning. In the eighth, the Sea Dogs would wreak havoc against three B-Mets’ pitchers, scoring six runs, half of which were unearned due to an error by Edgar Alfonzo. This cut the margin down significantly, with Binghamton leading 9-7.De La Cruz, who had come in to get the final two outs in the eighth, came out to throw the ninth against the meat of the Portland order. Argenis Diaz opened up the inning with a popout to first. Then Lars Anderson and Bates singled back-to-back to put the tying runs on and allow the go-ahead run to come to the plate. It was at that point that De La Cruz buckled down getting Jon Still to flyout to right and Juan Apodaca to ground into a game-ending fielder’s choice to short.Antonini picked up his fourth win of the season with his longest start to date, going 6.2 innings giving up a run with six strikeouts. The save was De La Cruz’ second.Maxwell took the loss for Portland giving up six runs on eight hits over five innings to drop to 0-2 for the year.