Erie Wins Back-and-Forth Game One

The Erie SeaWolves rallied back and took game one of the Eastern League Championship Series with a 6-5 victory over the Somerset Patriots on Saturday at UPMC Park. The SeaWolves set a new record attendance in a playoff game with 5,040 fans, breaking its previous high of 4,739 fans on Tuesday.

Somerset opened the scoring in the third. Brandon Lockridge began the inning with a leadoff single against Wilmer Flores. Jasson Dominguez doubled to left and advanced Lockridge to third. Austin Wells drove in both baserunners with a double to give the Patriots a 2-0 lead.

Parker Meadows cut the deficit to 2-1 with a solo homer against Will Warren in the fourth.

Flores tossed four innings in a no-decision effort. He allowed two runs on four hits, walking one, and striking out five.

Michael De La Cruz went into second with a hustle double to begin the fifth. Gage Workman put Erie on top, 3-2, with a two-run blast the other way.

Wilson went four-plus innings and had a no-decision. He yielded three runs on four hits, walking one, and striking out seven.

Somerset responded in the sixth. Wells greeted Brant Hurter with his second double of the night. Andres Chaparro moved Wells to third with a single. Hurter struck out Elijah Dunham and Jeisson Rosario to hold the runners at the corners. Jesus Bastidas poked an RBI single to knock in Wells. Tyler Hardman followed suit with a two-run double to pull the Patriots ahead, 5-3.

Meadows had his second extra-base hit of the evening with a one-out double in the sixth against Shawn Semple. Danny Serretti reached on an infield single to bring Meadows to third. De La Cruz walked to load the bases. Workman was down in a 1-2 count against Matt Minnick but came through with a two-run single up the middle to tie the game 5-5.

The SeaWolves re-took the lead in the seventh. Jon Rosoff lined a single off of Aaron McGarity. Meadows had his third hit of the game with a single. Rosoff went to third on the Meadows base hit and scored from first on an error from Dominguez to pull Erie ahead, 6-5.

Andrew Magno tossed a scoreless eighth and Gerson Moreno earned the save with a shutdown ninth inning, striking out two. The pitching staff rang up 13 batters — another record for the SeaWolves in the postseason.

Alvarado (1-0) earned the win. He hurled 1.1 scoreless innings, allowing one hit, and striking out three.

McGarity (0-1) was tagged with the loss. He gave up an unearned run on two hits in 1.2 innings of work.