B-Mets Late Push Falls Short in 3-2 Loss

ERIE,PA – The Binghamton Mets left nine men on base, including the potentialgame-tying run at second in the ninth, in a 3-2 loss to the Erie SeaWolvesSaturday afternoon at Jerry Uht Park. The B-Mets turned four hits and sevenwalks into just two runs in the defeat.

B-Metsstarter Collin McHugh battled low temperatures and command issues in the firsttwo innings, walking four and reaching a full-count against five batters. Inspite of the difficulties, he managed to escape unharmed with two shutoutinnings.

Afterworking quick innings in the third and fourth, McHugh ran into a roadblock inthe fifth. The righty allowed his first hit with one out, an infield single toshort by Niuman Romero. After Brandon Douglas snuck a bunt single to third, bothrunners moved up an additional base when Jefry Marte uncorked a wild throw tofirst.

RobBrantly gave Erie the lead by lacing a two-run, opposite-field double high offthe left field fence. The hit ended McHugh’s day after 4.1 innings. He walked aseason-high four and struck out four. Kevin Mulvey entered and surrendered anRBI single to Ben Guez, giving the SeaWolves a three-run edge.

Binghamtonfinally plated a run without the benefit of a hit in the seventh. Aftercruising through six frames, Avery pitched himself out of the game by walking TravisOzga and Rafael Fernandez. Reliever Michael Morrison replaced him, walked KaiGronauer and uncorked a wild pitch, allowing Ozga to score Binghamton’s firstrun. Pedro Zapata flied out to left to end the inning.

Thewalks continued for Erie pitching in the eighth. Morrison was pulled from themound after putting the first three on base, all via base on balls. Jefry Martegreeted new reliever Kenny Faulk with a bloop single to right, scoring DenDekker. The single by Marte was Binghamton’s first hit with a runner in scoringposition in over 29 innings. Faulk retired the next three he faced to preservethe one-run lead.

Binghamtonpushed the tying run to second in the ninth against Faulk, but failed to comethrough with the big hit. Zapata reached on an infield single and swiped secondbase with two outs. He was stranded to end the game when Oswaldo Navarro struckout against Faulk.

Faulk’ssix-out save was his first of the season. Avery (3-1) picked up his third winand McHugh (3-2) watched his three-game winning streak come to an end with theloss.

TheB-Mets (11-10) wrap up their series with the SeaWolves in a rubber match tomorrowafternoon at 1:35 PM. RHP Zack Wheeler leads the B-Mets against RHP MarkSorensen. The Horizons Federal Credit Union pre-game show begins at 1:20 PM onNewsradio 1290 WNBF.