AKRON, Ohio (May 2, 2026) — The Senators led most of the game Saturday night riding RHP Kyle Luckham's season-best start, but a Ralphy Velasquez grand slam in the eighth inning pushed the RubberDucks to a 4-3 victory.
Luckham cruised, starting off by retiring the first 15 Akron batters of the game. He bested his teammate, LHP Alex Clemmey, who retired the first 14 batters of Tuesday night's game.
Luckham allowed only two baserunners, hits to lead off the sixth and seventh innings. The right-hander matched his Double-A career-high mark of eight strikeouts in a game. His 6.2 innings is the longest start by a Senator this season.
Harrisburg plated three runs in the fourth on four hits and an error. INF Sam Brown and OF Leandro Pineda singled to lead off the inning.
With the men on second and third and two out, C Max Romero Jr. singled to the second-baseman Christian Knapczyk to score a run. Knapczyk threw the ball away attempting to get Romero, scoring the second run.
OF Johnathon Thomas then doubled to score Romero and stretch the lead to 3-0.
In the eighth, Akron loaded the bases against RHP Sandy Gaston (L, 1-2) on two hits and a walk. With two outs, Ralphy Velasquez flied a ball to the right of straightaway center, just clearing the homerun line for a grand slam.
With the RubberDucks leading 4-3, the Senators went down in order in the ninth.
Akron leads the series three games to two and improves to 16-10. Harrisburg is 15-10.
The series finale comes at 1:05 p.m. Sunday afternoon with LHP Alex Clemmey slated to follow up his shutout win on Tuesday.