NEW YORK, LAKE ERIE, AND EVANSVILLE EXTEND WINNING STREAKS

Empire State vs Ottawa

Looking to stay on a roll, the Ottawa Titans (50-38) doubled up the Empire State Greys 6-3 on Friday night, taking the series opener.

Leading off the night, Jose Mercado reached on an E6 to put the pressure on early. Zac Westcott (win, 10-3) walked Robbie Carling to put two on, as Manny Garcia looped in a single to centre, opening up the scoring.

Liam McArthur kicked off the night offensively with a triple to the corner in right off Jay Palais (loss, 0-5) in the bottom half of the first. Jackie Urbaez tied the ballgame up with a double to left-centre, scoring McArthur. Two batters later, Jake Sanford gave the Titans the lead with an RBI groundout.

Garcia would bring the game level with another RBI single in the top of the third, cashing in Mercado's leadoff double.

The Titans got back-to-back one-out singles from Sanford and Tyrus Greene in the fifth, setting up a go-ahead two-run double from Jason Dicochea.

Willies Estrada cut the deficit to one with a solo blast to right-centre off Westcott in the fourth. The Titans' righty locked in after the homer, retiring 8 of the final 10 he faced. Westcott's night would come to an end after seven complete, allowing three runs, two earned, on eight hits, and striking out eight for his 10th victory of the season.

With one down in the fifth, Sanford crushed his first of two homers on the night with a solo shot. Recording his first homer in 23 games, Sanford put the Titans in front 5-3.

Palais got the hook after six, allowing five runs, on eight hits, walking three, and striking out two in the loss.

Sanford belted his second homer of the night in the seventh off righty Locke Bernhardt. The Dartmouth native's 18th homer of the year put the Titans ahead 6-3.

Kyle Serrano and Nelson Gonzalez (save, 4) completed the night on the hill for the Titans, tossing two scoreless innings. The duo combined to strike out three, each facing the minimum.

With their third straight victory and some help around the league, the Titans slide back into third place in the East Division.

Sussex County vs Quebec 

In an exciting match between the Sussex County Miners and Quebec Capitales, the Capitales came out on top by a score 9-10 in extra innings on Friday night. 

The Miners got on the scoreboard first in the top of the first with a homerun from Jawaun Harris and Martin Figueroa. 

Quebec would quickly retaliate by scoring four runs in the bottom of the inning making it 2-4 to take the lead. 

The Capitales would continue to add two more runs in the bottom of the second. 

The Miners would start climbing back in the top of the third with Nilo Rijo scoring on an error and Harris hitting a double to make 4-6. 

However, T.J. White would hit a two run home run in the bottom of the fourth to extend their lead. 

The Miners didn't give up by scoring four runs between the fifth, seventh and ninth inning to tie the game at 8-8. 

Sussex County would get ahead in the top of the 10th by scoring a run, however, Quebec would get the win with a double from Jeffry Parra to drive in two to make it 9-10. 

Tyler Thornton would get the loss for Sussex County while David Richardson would get his first win for the Quebec Capitales. 

New Jersey vs Trois-Rivières 

After being swept by the New York Boulders, the New Jersey Jackals faced Trois-Rivières Aigles and defeated them by a score of 12-5. 

The New Jersey Jackals got to scoring first with a home run from George Bell Jr. in the top of the first. 

Justin Wylie would score on a wild pitch in the top of the second to make the score 2-0. 

The Aigles would tie it in the second with a double from Ricardo Sanchez and a single from former New Jersey Jackal, Nicco Toni. 

The Jackals would get back ahead in the top of the third and never look back and put together 10 more runs between the third, fourth, seventh, and eighth inning. 

The Aigles would score three runs between the third and fourth inning but New Jersey would ultimately come out on top and win 12-5. 

Sam Poliquin would get charged with the loss for Trois-Rivières while Angelo Baez gets the win for New Jersey. 

Tri-City vs New York

Chris Kwitzer gave the host Boulders the lead with a third inning home run as New York downed the Tri-City ValleyCats 6-4 in the first game of a key three-game weekend series on Friday at Clover Stadium in Pomona.

Trailing 4-3 in the third, David Vinsky led off for the Boulders with a double, which was followed by a walk to Austin Dennis. Kwitzer then hit his 19th home run of the season, a three-run shot to right field, to put New York ahead 6-4,

Tri-City jumped in front in the first inning, scoring three times - one on an RBI single by Brantley Bell and two on Brad Zunica's 26th home run of the year.

The Boulders got one back in the home half of the first on Vinsky's 20th home run of the season.

The Valley Cats got that run back in the second on a Bell double.

New York answered with two runs in the bottom of the second to closed to within 4-3. Francisco Del Valle and Ray Hernandez hit back-to-back doubles, with the frame's second run coming on a throwing error by Valley Cats' third baseman Pavin Parks on a grounder off the bat of Gian Martellini. 

Alex Mack picked up the win for the Boulders, going six innings and allowing four runs on nine hits, while walking one and striking out four as he improved to 8-4 on the year.

Dan Wirchansky closed out the win with three innings of shutout relief. He struck out seven as he picked up his third save of the season.

Ryan Hartman was tagged with the loss for Tri-City, falling to 0-2 on the season. He surrendered six runs (five earned) on six hits. Hartman walked one and struck out five.

Joliet vs Windy City

Despite a three-run first inning, the ThunderBolts dropped the opener of their weekend set with the Joliet Slammers 6-4 at Ozinga Field Friday night.

The Slammers (45-42) jumped out to an early lead, scoring three unearned runs in the top of the first. After two men reached on a walk and an error, Carson Maxwell singled them both home. Maxwell scored on a Lane Baremore double.

The ThunderBolts (31-56) quickly responded in the bottom of the frame. Brynn Martinez and Jake Boone led off with back-to-back singles. Then Bren Spillane tripled them both home. Brian Klein tied the score with an RBI groundout.

The tie didn't last very long as Joliet went ahead for good in the second. A Jackson Coutts sacrifice fly made it 4-3.

In the fourth inning, Brylie Ware picked up an RBI single to give the Slammers a two-run lead.

With two outs in the bottom of the sixth, Spillane doubled and Klein followed with an RBI triple to cut the deficit to 5-4. Klein was stranded at third, though, and the Bolts didn't threaten again.

Joliet tacked on a final insurance run in the top of the ninth to make it a 6-4 final.

Spencer Johnston (5-2) allowed four runs over 5.2 innings and picked up the win for Joliet. Miguel Ausua (2-8) went six innings and gave up five runs (two earned) to take the loss. Tyler Jay pitched around a ninth-inning hit for his eighth save.

The season's final home stand continues for the ThunderBolts on Saturday night with a 6:05 first pitch. Garrett Christman (3-6, 5.42) gets the start for the Bolts against Joliet's Trevor Charpie (4-4, 2.94). The game will be followed by Ozinga Field's Super Mega Fireworks show, presented by Lumina Pyrotechnics. The broadcast can be found through wcthunderbolts.com.

Evansville vs Florence

Brennan Price hit a first inning home run to give Florence an early advantage at Bosse Field Friday night, but the Otters scored three times in the third inning to take a lead they would hold for the remainder of the night in a 5-2 Evansville victory. 

The home run for Price is his 21st of the season, good for the most on the team. Price has now hit three home runs on this road trip after hitting a pair against Gateway Wednesday night. 

The Otters did not panic despite facing the early deficit, getting to Y'alls starting pitcher Bobby Brabrand three times in the third inning to take a 3-1 lead. All three runs came with the bases loaded: a walk, a single, and a sacrifice fly. 

 The Y'alls chipped away in the sixth inning thanks to a Ray Zuberer RBI single, but the 3-2 score is as close as Florence would get the rest of the night. Dakota Phillips homered in the bottom of the sixth, and Elijah MacNamee drove home an insurance run in the eighth on a single to center. Logan Sawyer pitched the ninth inning for Evansville to earn his 22ndsave of the season. 

Brabrand takes the loss after allowing four runs over six innings. He fanned ten batters and has struck out 26 over his past three starts. Alberti Chavez had two more hits to extend his hitting streak to eight games in a row. Florence could only muster four hits as a team, all of them coming against Brett Adcock who went seven innings and struck out nine to earn the win. 

Schaumburg vs Gateway

The Schaumburg Boomers scored seven runs with two outs to rally to a 7-5 win over the Gateway Grizzlies in the opener of a weekend series at Wintrust Field.

Gateway plated two runs with two outs in the first against Schaumburg starter Shumpei Yoshikawa. Opponents have scored in the first inning in all four games of the homestand. Blake Grant-Parks knocked home Blake Berry with a two-out single in the bottom of the second to put the Boomers on the board. Gateway countered with single runs in the third and fourth to open a 4-1 edge.

Wyatt Stapp walked with two outs in the fourth and scored on a single from Grant-Parks. Trailing 4-2, the Boomers took advantage of an error with two outs in the sixth to plate five runs and grab the win. Grant-Parks knocked home the first run with a double to deep left. Alec Craig followed with a two-run single to tie the score. Braxton Davidson extended his on-base streak to 45 with an authoritative two-run homer to left, his 16th of the year.

Yoshikawa earned the win by working six innings. The righty set the single season record for strikeouts by fanning seven to surpass Gunnar Kines on the night Kines set the league record for strikeouts. Yoshikawa owns 114 strikeouts this season, bettering the mark of 112 set in 2019. Miguel Reyes worked the seventh, Kristian Scott the eighth and Darrell Thompson tallied his 14th save.

The offense recorded 12 hits in the win. Grant-Parks and William Salas logged three each in the bottom two spots of the lineup. Stapp tallied two from the seventh slot as the bottom three accounted for eight hits and four runs scored. 

Lake Erie vs Washington

Lake Erie lefty Gunnar Kines became the Frontier League's all-time leader in strikeouts on Friday night, as the Crushers continued their winning ways at home with a 2-1 victory over the Washington Wild Things at Mercy Health Stadium. 

The Crushers (46-42) have now won seven in a row at home, and 12 of their last 15 games overall, while the loss for the Wild Things (56-32) was their fourth in their last five games.

Kines (4-6) needed just one strikeout to set the record, and he did that two batters into the game when he struck out Scotty Dubrule. The Crusher lefty struck out nine batters on the evening, and now owns the Frontier League record for career strikeouts with 532. 

Runs were very tough to come by on the night, as the pitching was terrific for both teams. Kines tossed six scoreless innings and allowed just four hits to go along with those nine strikeouts to pick up the win. He out-dueled Washington's Sandro Cabrera (7-4) who took the hard luck loss after allowing a run on five hits over seven innings of work. 

After three scoreless innings, Lake Erie jumped on the board first in the bottom of the fourth. Jackson Valera smashed a one out double down the left field line and made his way to third on Austin White's single. DJ Stewart brought Valera home moments later on a sacrifice fly to right. 

Lake Erie added another run on a sacrifice fly in the seventh. White started the inning with a nine pitch walk and advanced to third on Stewart's single to left. Kenen Irizarry scored White on a sacrifice fly to right to give the Crushers a 2-0 lead. 

Washington made things interesting in the eighth. After Nathan Holt came on in relief of Kines and retired the first four batters he faced, he surrendered back-to-back one out singles to Dubrule and Tristan Peterson in the eighth. Holt was replaced by Sam Curtis who allowed a RBI single to Wagner Lagrange before retiring the next two batters to keep it a one run game. 

Alexis Rivero (18) tossed a scoreless ninth inning to pick up the save. 

Valera paced Lake Erie offensively, going 2-for-3 on the night and delivered the game's only extra base hit. White and Kemuel Thomas-Rivera both reached safely twice on the night as well.