Sea Dogs fall in extra inning, walk-off fashion to Yard Goats

Hartford, CT – After falling to the Hartford Yard Goats the night before, no thanks to a 10-run sixth inning, the Portland Sea Dogs looked to avenge the loss and get to their winning ways.

The Sea Dogs, came into the top of the ninth trailing by one and rallied to tie it at one run apiece off the bat of Niko Kavadas – who tied it with a solo home run.

It was then followed by a rally for the Yard Goats – who nearly won the game – but, ultimately, after multiple lead changes in extra innings Hartford came out with a 4-3 victory in 12 innings on Thursday night.

“It was a good game, two starters did exactly what they were supposed to do, give their team a chance to win,” Portland manager Chad Epperson said. “We just lacked some offense, but you have to tip your hat to them.”

Starting on the mound for the Sea Dogs, was Grant Gambrell. Gambrell was making his Double-A debut after Shane Drohan was called up to Triple-A before Thursday.

Gambrell showed his mettle, and wound up pitching five perfect innings to open the game; however, he was unable to keep past going past the fifth inning

“Love to see Gambrell get on the mound for the first time out here,” Sea Dogs catcher Stephen Scott said. “It’s the first time I’ve had to catch him in a game, I thought he did fantastic, and I had a lot of fun catching him. I can’t give him enough credit for the job he did.”

Before the game, Gambrell said he was confident and felt confident. He said that Greenville manager Iggy Suarez told him that his next start was going to wonky “because he was starting [for] Portland”, but that that excited him.

On the offensive end of things, the Sea Dogs were able to load the bases up in the top of the fifth inning with two singles and a walk, but were unable to get a run across.

After five perfect frames to open the game, Gambrell lost command on the first pitch of the bottom of the sixth inning and allowed a solo home run on the first pitch of the inning off the bat of Drew Romo.

“Right back to it,” Gambrell said of his thoughts after the home run. “As soon as it went over [the fence], I was like ‘next pitch’, have to keep going.”

Following bottom of the sixth inning, the Sea Dogs brought in fireballer Ryan Zeferjahn in the bottom of the seventh inning. The University of Kansas product walked two in the inning, but he also struck out three.

The same two squads face off with each other for the fourth game of the six-game set on Friday, first pitch is set for 7:10 p.m.