Buffalo 7 Pawtucket 0
Both Andy Burns and Alex Hassan collected four hits as the Bisons offense busted through with a convincing 7-0 victory over the Red Sox at McCoy Stadium, Sunday night.
On the eve of the season finale, the Herd made sure their season-worst losing streak did not carry over into the off-season. By blanking the PawSox, Buffalo snapped their seven-game skid and handed Pawtucket their 20th shutout loss of the season.
The Bisons had a pair of big rallies after Ryan Schimpf opened the scoring in the second inning with this third home run of the season. Alex Hassan singled in two of the three runs in the Buffalo fifth inning. The Bisons left fielder then repeated the feat two innings later with a two-run double, giving the Bisons a 7-0 lead in the seventh.
Hassan also singled in the third and ninth inning to finish the night 4-5 with four RBI. The performance raised his average to .314 on the season.
Not to be outdone, Burns collected his team-high third, four-hit game of the season and was at the heart of each of Buffalo's rallies. He followed up singles from Jon Berti and Jonathan Diaz in the fifth inning with a grounder up the middle that gave the Herd its second run of the night. His line drive into left field loaded the bases in the seventh, setting the stage for Hassan's game-clinching double.
The beneficiary of the offense was Todd Redmond, who scattered seven hits over six innings for his third win of the season. The veteran walked two and struck out three. He ended his night by getting Luis Martinez to fly out with the bases loaded in the sixth inning, preserving the shutout.
Donn Roach worked two innings of relief and Steve Delabar picked up a strike out in a 1-2-3 ninth inning to finish off the win.
New Hampshire 5 Trenton 1
The New Hampshire Fisher Cats struck late in the game Sunday night to move past the Trenton Thunder, taking a 5-1 win in the penultimate game of the 2015 season at Arm & Hammer Park.
The Fisher Cats (68-71) scored four of their five runs from the seventh inning on, battering the bullpen of their hosts. The Thunder (71-70) couldn't follow up an early lead and dropped the second game in a row. The final game of the series -- and the season -- will be a rubber match for the series on Monday.
The Thunder drew first blood in the bottom of the second against Fisher Cats starter Austin Bibens-Dirkx, as Jake Skole hammered a slider over the right-field wall for a solo homer to put Trenton ahead 1-0. The Fisher Cats answered in the top of the third inning, with Shane Opitz singling to lead off against Trenton starter Cale Coshow. Ground-outs by Emilio Guerrero and Matt Newman advanced Opitz to third, and Roemon Fields looped a single into left field to score Opitz and tie the game at 1-1.
The Fisher Cats finally broke ahead in the top of the seventh inning against Coshow. Jack Murphy laced a one-out double up the right field line, and Opitz followed by cracking a double to left to score Murphy. Guerrero lined out to Francisco Arcia at first base, but Newman zipped a single to right field, scoring Opitz to give New Hampshire a 3-1 lead.
New Hampshire added an insurance run in the top of the eighth against reliever Taylor Garrison. Jorge Flores led off the frame with a single, and moved to third on a single by Dwight Smith, Jr. K.C. Hobson fanned for the first out, but Kevin Nolan punched a single through the middle to score Flores and extend the lead to 4-1. In the top of the ninth, Fields hit a triple to left when Billy Fleming fell down and got up gimpy, and scored when Smith singled into the left-center field gap, making it 5-1 Fisher Cats.
Bibens-Dirkx earned his seventh win in his final start of the season, allowing one run on five hits and a walk over seven innings. He struck out a season-best eight batters. Cory Burns pitched two scoreless innings with two hits against a strikeout for his second save of the season.
Dunedin 1 Clearwater 2
This was an odd game but it was the last game of the FSL season. Clearwater had only three hits, all of them in the third inning and one of them was a two run home run. Dunedin had five hits but Boomer Collins had three of the five, one of them a solo home run.
Jeremy Gabrszwski was the hard luck loser. He went five innings and just had the one bad inning.
Lansing 6 Dayton 2
Second baseman Jason Leblebijian capped a huge game with a two-run homer, and the Lansing Lugnuts (31-37, 73-65) topped the Dayton Dragons (31-37, 70-68), 6-2, in the penultimate game of the regular season Sunday at Fifth Third Field.
Leblebijian went 4-for-4 with a walk, two singles, an RBI double and a massive roundtripper to left amid a tie-breaking three-run seventh inning. He is 16-for-36 in eight games against Dayton this season, a .444 average.
Lansing started Shane Dawson in a one-inning stint to prepare for Wednesday's Game 1 of the Midwest League postseason. The All-Star made it look easy, touching 92 miles-per-hour while striking out Jon Matthews and Jimmy Pickens and retiring Aristides Aquino on a fly to center.
Conor Fisk (Win, 3-3) pitched the next 6 2/3 innings, striking out three and allowing only two runs on five hits and three runs.
Jose Fernandez (Save, 12) recorded the final four outs, whiffing a pair of Dragons and ending the game on a 5-4-3 double play.
Dayton starter Tejay Antone was on his game, reached for only Leblebijian's third-inning RBI double in six strong innings. But the Lugnuts victimized reliever Junior Morillo (Loss, 4-9), scoring three runs in the seventh and two unearned runs in the ninth.
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Everett 0 Vancouver 11
Vancouver scored 11 runs on seven hits, but they took advantage of 10 walks and three errors. Gabriel Cenas was the only hitter with two hits. Cenas, Connor Panas and Ryan Metzler homered.
The C's used six pitchers, none for more than 3 innings. Combined they only gave up four hits.
3 Stars
3rd star: Todd Redmond
2nd star: Jason Leblebijian
1st star: Alex Hassan
