MANCHESTER, New Hampshire — The New Hampshire Fisher Cats led wire-to-wire and shut out the Portland Sea Dogs 9-0 on Friday night to win the final three games of their four-game against their New England rivals.
Austin Bibens-Dirkx (2-3) entered the night with a 9.50 ERA but kept the Sea Dogs scoreless and allowed just one hit over six innings with six strikeouts and one walk.
Dalton Pompey reached on a Reed Gragnani error to lead off the bottom of the first and advanced into scoring position on a bunt single by Roemon Fields. After Jon Berti grounded into a fielder’s choice to put runners at the corners, K.C. Hobson hit a sacrifice fly to put New Hampshire on the board. Then Ryan Schimpf uncorked a long home run off of Sea Dogs’ starter Kyle Kraus to make it 3-0. All three runs were unearned.
Kraus (0-1) went four innings and allowed four runs (one earned) on five hits and struck out two.
The Fisher Cats added a run in the third, then scored four times off Simon Mercedes in the fifth inning to make it 8-0 and added a run in the eighth inning off on John Cornely to make it 9-0.
Portland was shut out for the 10th time this season.
The Sea Dogs return home on Saturday night to open a three-game series against the Reading Fighting Phils at Hadlock Field. Heri Quevedo (0-4) makes the start for Portland against Reading lefty Jessie Biddle (7-1).
