Dogs lose 1st road game of th year.

Eammon Portice and Seth Garrison combined to throw five and one-third perfect innings of relief, but the Portland Sea Dogs offense fell short in a 6-2 loss to the New Britain Rock Cats Thursday night.  Bobby Lanigan (1-1) tossed six innings giving up just five hits and one earned run to grab his first win of the season.  The Rock Cats have now won five in a row since starting the season 1-2.

Brock Huntzinger (0-2) was knocked around in his second career Double-A start.  After giving up six runs in his debut last week, the Anderson, Indiana native only lasted two and two-thirds innings and gave up seven hits and five earned runs for his second loss of the year.  Portice came in and retired ten straight New Britain batters to stem the tide.  Then Garrison stymied the Rock Cats over the final two innings, but the Sea Dogs offense couldn't get anything going against Lanigan or Cole DeVries, who picked up his first save.

Alex Hassan (Hass-un) had two walks and single to keep his seven-game hitting streak alive.  Hassan is now 13-for-26 (.500) through his first seven games with Portland.  After former Sea Dog Ray Chang blasted a solo shot as part of a two-run first inning, Middlebrooks cracked his second round-tripper of the season in the top of the second to cut the lead to 2-1.
New Britain would pile on four more runs and chase Huntzinger in the bottom half of the third inning.  Joe Benson smacked a two-run double, part of his 3 RBI night, as part of the rally.  Portland added another score in the top half of the fifth.  Oscar Tejeda led off with a double, moved to third on a single by Ryan Dent, then scored on a passed ball against Rock Cats catcher Allan de San Miguel.

The Sea Dogs will take on the Rock Cats in the second of their four-game series tomorrow at 12:05pm.  Stolmy Pimentel (0-1) will make his second Double-A start against Steve Hirschfeld (1-0) of New Britain.  The road trip continues with three games in Binghamton before the Sea Dogs return home for seven games with the Rock Cats and Mets.  The first Fireworks show of the year will take place April 22nd and is sponsored by Oxford Networks.  For tickets call 207-879-9500 or log on to www.seadogs.com.
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