PORTLAND, Maine — The Portland Sea Dogs scored five runs in the first inning and pulled away with an 8-3 Eastern League baseball win over the Richmond Flying Squirrels in the series opener on Friday night at Hadlock Field.
Portland had five hits in the first inning. Nate Freiman drove in the first run on a bases-loaded sacrifice fly and Cole Sturgeon followed with an RBI sacrifice bunt to make it 2-0.
Jake Romanski added an RBI single, then two batters later Rainel Rosario hit a two-run single to extend the lead to 5-0.
Richmond answered with two runs in the second on a double by T.J. Bennett, but Portland struck right back in the third on a leadoff solo home run by Andrew Benintendi off of Kyle Crick, the first Double-A homer for Benintendi.
Benintendi finished a triple shy of the cycle and drove in two runs while scoring two as well.
Keith Couch (4-1) was the winner for Portland. He allowed three runs on seven hits in seven innings while walking two and striking out five. Crick (L, 1-5) allowed six runs on eight hits in 2 ⅔ innings, walking one and striking out one.
The Sea Dogs totaled 11 hits, with eight of nine in the starting lineup recording at least one. Aneury Tavarez had two doubles, while Ryan Court reached base four times and Tzu-Wei Lin reached three times.