Cats quiet, 'Ducks quack in opener at Akron

Tanner Morris extends hit streak to nine games

(Photo courtesy of Cindy Lavigne)

May 24, 2022

Akron, Ohio – The New Hampshire Fisher Cats (17-22) lost, 9-2, to the Akron RubberDucks (Cleveland Guardians, 24-16) on Tuesday afternoon. Akron remains in first place in the Southwest division of the Eastern League, while New Hampshire fell to five games below .500 for the second time this season. Tanner

Akron, Ohio – The New Hampshire Fisher Cats (17-22) lost, 9-2, to the Akron RubberDucks (Cleveland Guardians, 24-16) on Tuesday afternoon. Akron remains in first place in the Southwest division of the Eastern League, while New Hampshire fell to five games below .500 for the second time this season.

Tanner Morris extended his hit streak to nine games with a single in the first inning. He finished 2-for-4 with walk and a run scored. Morris leads the team in batting average (.319), on-base percentage (.449), walks (26) and multi-hit games (11). He has seven multi-hit games in the month of May and has hit safely in every game since May 12.

Morris scored on a Spencer Horwitz sacrifice fly in the third inning, and Luis De Los Santos added the Fisher Cats’ second run in the eighth with a leadoff solo homer to left field. The blast was De Los Santos’ second home run of the season.

The Fisher Cats left eight runners stranded on base across the first five innings, though, as Akron took a 7-1 lead at the end of the fifth. Nick Fraze (L, 1-4) was tagged for seven runs across 4.1 innings of work. He struck out three.

The RubberDucks scored three in the first and four in the fifth, with five of those seven runs coming on homers from Will Brennan and George Valera. Brennan leads the Eastern League in RBIs with 39. Valera finished 2-for-5 with a double, homer, three runs scored and four RBIs.

The Fisher Cats bullpen combined for 3.2 innings of work and allowed two hits and one earned run. Jake Elliott struck out two to close out the fifth inning. Gabriel Ponce worked around a leadoff single and walk to pitch a scoreless eighth. He also struck out two.

The Fisher Cats continue their six-game series with the Akron RubberDucks (Cleveland Guardians) on Wednesday, May 25 at 6:35 p.m. Akron has won 13 of their last 16 games.

New Hampshire returns home on Tuesday, May 31 versus the Portland Sea Dogs (Boston Red Sox). Tickets can be found at NHFisherCats.com, via email at [email protected], over the phone at (603) 641-2005, or in-person at the Fisher Cats box office at 1 Line Drive in Manchester.