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Fitts Fans Career-High Eleven, Jones Takes Tiedemann Deep in One-Run Victory

September 15, 2023

The Somerset Patriots defeated the New Hampshire Fisher Cats on Friday night by a final score of 3-2 at Northeast Delta Dental Stadium in Manchester, NH. The win brings Somerset’s record on the season to 82-53, one win shy of their exact record from 2022, with two games left to

The Somerset Patriots defeated the New Hampshire Fisher Cats on Friday night by a final score of 3-2 at Northeast Delta Dental Stadium in Manchester, NH.

The win brings Somerset’s record on the season to 82-53, one win shy of their exact record from 2022, with two games left to be played in the regular season.

The one-run game marked Somerset’s Eastern League-leading 46th of the season, improving to 23-23 in such games. In their 16th game vs. the Fisher Cats, it was the seventh decided by one run.

RHP Richard Fitts (6.2 IP, 1 ER, 4 H, 1 BB, 11 K) struck out a career-high 11 batters in the game, which was his final start of the season.

Ending the season with 27 games started, Fitts pitched a total of 152.2 innings, striking out 163 batters with 15 quality starts and 11 wins, setting Somerset Patriots single-season franchise records in each of those marks.

Fitts will end the 2023 Eastern League season as the league leader in IP (152.2), K (163), QS (15) and he is currently tied for the league lead with 11 wins. Fitts also ends the season with a 3.48 ERA, which currently ranks third in the Eastern League.

With his 11-strikeout performance, Fitts became the sixth Patriots pitcher to reach that mark this season, joining Blane Abeyta, Clayton Beeter (twice), Yoendrys Gomez, Matt Sauer and Drew Thorpe. It was the fourth time this season that Fitts reached double-digit strikeouts, leading all Patriots pitchers.

CF Spencer Jones (2-for-4, 2 RBI, R, HR, K) registered his fifth multi-hit game and second multi-RBI game of the season for the Somerset Patriots.

Jones, the Yankees’ top prospect (MLB Pipeline), opened the game’s scoring with his second Double-A home run in the first inning, hit off LHP Ricky Tiedemann, the Blue Jays’ top prospect (MLB Pipeline).

2B Max Burt (1-for-3, BB, K, 3 SB) accomplished the first three-stolen base game of his career, setting a new single-season career-high mark with 21 steals.

Postgame Notes: 9-15-23

Box Score: 9-15-23