ERIE, PA - Josue Briceño blasted his second home run of the game in the seventh inning to give the Erie SeaWolves (22-10, 58-42) a 5-4 lead, but two ninth-inning runs from the Akron RubberDucks (12-20, 47-53) proved too much to overcome in a 6-5 loss at UPMC Park on Saturday night.
Erie's offense started hot in the bottom of the first. With one out and a runner aboard, Briceño singled on a line drive through the left side to put runners at first and second. Andrew Jenkins started the scoring with an RBI-single to right and EJ Exposito grounded into a force out to score a second run and put the SeaWolves up 2-0.
Akron punched back in the third. Nick Mitchell singled home the first RubberDucks' run with two outs in the inning. Jaison Chourio doubled him home to tie the game at two, but Chourio attempted to stretch his hit to a triple and was thrown out by center fielder Patrick Lee.
Akron jumped into the lead in the fourth when Bennett Thompson launched a solo home run off of Carlos Peña to make it a 3-2 Akron lead.
Peña finished his outing surrendering three runs over 4.2 innings with seven strikeouts.
Jay Driver entered the game in the fifth and allowed a solo home run to Briceño just moments later to tie the game at three. The blast was Briceño's fourth homer in just 11 games with Erie.
Zane Barnhart entered the game in relief for the first time in a SeaWolves uniform after he was acquired via trade from Baltimore earlier this week. The former Baysox struck out the first hitter he faced, but subsequently allowed two consecutive baserunners. Alex Mooney smacked a two-out double to score Dean Curley and give the RubberDucks a one-run lead once again.
The SeaWolves vaulted back into the lead in the seventh when Briceño launched his second home run of the night out to right field on the ninth pitch of the at-bat. The two-run homer gave Erie a 5-4 lead with just two innings to play. It's the second multi-homer game that Briceño has collected with the SeaWolves and his first in 2026.
Marco Jimenez entered the game for the eighth inning and worked his way out of two on, nobody out jam without allowing a run. Ryan Cesarini led off the ninth inning with a double and Alex Mooney sent him home on a line drive single. Nick Mitchell followed with an RBI single to bring in the go-ahead run and give Akron a 6-5 lead.
The SeaWolves would not score in the ninth despite an Andrew Jenkins two-out double and dropped their second game of the series.
Jenkins finished the night with his second four-hit game of the series and the SeaWolves first baseman has collected ten hits over the last three games.
First pitch of Sunday's series finale is set for 1:35 PM. Max Alba heads back to the mound for his second start of the series against Akron's Sean Matson.
Single-game tickets, suites, picnics, The Club by Synchrony events, and Bud Light Party Deck groups are now available by visiting SeaWolves.com, calling 814-456-1300, or visiting the UPMC Park Box Office in person.