ERIE, PA - It's been a season filled with career-bests for Erie SeaWolves' (33-15, 69-47) infielder EJ Exposito. In the fourth inning the New York native cranked his 22nd home run of the season out to left field to score what would end up as the winning runs in a 6-3 SeaWolves victory over the New Hampshire Fisher Cats (19-29, 53-62) on Thursday night at UPMC Park.
New Hampshire opened the scoring immediately in the first inning. Dub Gleed singled with two outs and Aaron Parker smashed his 15th home run of the season to give the Fisher Cats a quick 2-0 lead.
Erie got on the board in the bottom of the third. New Hampshire starter Danny Thompson Jr. walked two of the first three hitters he faced before Andrew Jenkins doubled home both runners to tie the game at two.
SeaWolves starter Lucas Elissalt motored through his next three innings on the mound after allowing two runs in the first. The right-hander finished his night with career-high 10 strikeouts in his UPMC Park debut, following his nine-strikeout performance last week against Hartford.
The Erie bats stayed hot in the fourth inning. A couple of walks to start the inning forced the starter Thompson out of the game after recording only one out in the frame. Angel Obando entered and walked the first batter he faced. A wild pitch allowed Patrick Lee to score and put Erie in front, but Exposito followed up with a three-run home run, His 22nd long ball of the year, to break the game open and send the SeaWolves to the fifth with a 6-2 lead.
The Fisher Cats got one run back in the fifth against Eric Silva as Aaron Parker crushed his second home run of the night. The catcher finished the game responsible for all three of New Hampshire's RBIs.
Erie's pitching staff carried the lead the rest of the night. Dariel Fregio, Marco Jimenez and Colin Fields handled the seventh, eighth and ninth innings respectively. Fields entered to begin the final frame and retired the side in order to secure his first save of the season. The SeaWolves move ahead to the weekend with a 2-1 series advantage.
Game four of the six-game set is Friday night at 6:05 PM. Right-hander Max Alba gets the start for Erie against lefty Johnny King for New Hampshire on SpongeBob Night at UPMC Park.
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.