Pahuta Powers Senators Past Portland 4-1

Harrisburg starter Tanner Rourk had a no-hitter going against the Sea Dogs into the sixth inning before Ryan Khoury and Jeremy Hazelbaker hit back to back doubles to end the bid and give Portland the lead. The Senators tied the game up in the eighth inning off Sea Dogs reliever Blake Maxwell, then took the lead for good on a 3-run home run by Tim Pahuta later in the inning as Harrisburg won 4-1.

Roark made it through the Portland lineup twice without allowing a hit, and a walk to Alex Hassan and a hit by pitch to Jon Hee were his only blemishes. Then Khoury stepped to the plate with two outs and laced the Sea Dogs first hit over the 3rd baseman's head for a double. Jeremy Hazelbaker then hit a fly ball towards the left-field foul pole that dropped fair then bounced into the stands for an RBI ground rule double. Roark went from no-hitter to losing pitcher of record in two batters.

The reason Harrisburg couldn't score for most of the game was the outstanding pitching of Chris Balcolm-Miller. The righty scattered 7 hits over a season-high 7 innings, and didn't allow a walk until his second to last batter. Just to keep the theme going, Balcolm-Miller struck out 7 batters, all of them on a swinging third strike.

Balcolm-Miller's quality outing was wasted quickly in the top of the eighth, when Blake Maxwell continued his late-season fall. The first batter he faced, Josh Johnson, chopped a ball right towards him, and he threw it well past 1st baseman Jon Hee and into the stands, bringing Johnson to 2nd. Derek Norris then dropped down a sacrifice bunt to move Johnson to 3rd. Tyler Moore then singled up the middle to tie the game 1-1. After Maxwell walked a batter and struck out a batter, Pahuta smashed his 10th home run of the season into the pavilion seats in right field to give Harrisburg a 4-1 lead. Maxwell then gave up another single before getting Chris McConnell to ironically ground out to the pitcher to end the inning.

Corey VanAllen and Rafael Martin each took a turn making Sea Dog batters look foolish in the eighth and ninth innings to close out the game. Martin struck out the side in the ninth for his 12th save of the year.

VanAllen picked up the win, his 4th of the year. he finished off the seventh inning for Roark by getting Mitch Dening to strike out looking.

Maxwell picked up his 5th blown save of the year, and his record fell to 3-4.

Eammon Portice pitched an efficient ninth inning, getting 3 quick outs on 5 pitches, 4 for strikes.

Game 2 of the 3-game series is tomorrow at 6pm. Matt Rusch will be making his 2nd appearance of the season for Portland, and will be looking for his first win.

Wednesday's series finale will be at noon, with former major league pitcher Oliver Perez starting for Harrisburg.