The Hartford Yard Goats erased a two-run deficit in the ninth inning to force extra innings and prevailed in a 5-4 win over Harrisburg on Thursday.
Braxton Fulford’s two-run home run in the 11th inning helped lift the Hartford Yard Goats to a 5-4 win over the Harrisburg Senators to move closer to the team’s first Eastern League playoff berth.
In the EL’s Northeast Division, Hartford (36-29) moved a full game ahead of the Portland Sea Dogs (35-30), who had Thursday’s game against the Richmond rained out. The Sea Dogs will play a doubleheader with Richmond on Friday night beginning at 4 p.m.
Hartford and Portland each have three games remaining the first half of the Eastern League’s split season. The first half winner secures a berth in September’s EL playoffs.
The Yard Goats, the Double A affiliate of the Colorado Rockies, have never earned a playoff berth since they moved to Hartford in 2016. The franchise’s last playoff berth came in 2009 when they were called the New Britain Rock Cats.
Tied at 2-2 in the 11th, Fulford led off the inning with a two-run homer to put the Goats up by two runs. The runner who begins the inning at second base in extra innings also scored on the play. It was his fifth home run of the year.
Harrisburg (37-29), who holds a 1½ game over Erie in the race for the first half Southeast Division title, cut the lead to one run on a RBI single from Brady House off Hartford reliever Bryce McGowen.
Harrisburg loaded the bases with a single and two walks with one out. But McGowen got Cortland Lawson to ground into a game-ending double play to secure the win.
Hartford had to rally with two runs in the ninth inning to force extra innings. Harrisburg starting pitcher Kyle Luckham retired 22 of 24 batters in eight scoreless innings. Luckham gave up a leadoff home run to Hartford’s Kyle Datres in the ninth inning that cut the lead to one run.
Fulford reached base when he was hit by a pitch and he scored on a one-out RBI single to center field from Braiden Ward to tie the game at 2-2.
Hartford got a run in the 10th inning to take a 3-2 lead on a grounder by Sterlin Thompson, which was set up by a single from Warming Bernabel. However, the Senators tied the game with a run in the bottom of the inning on Cody Wilson’s double off Hartford reliever Seth Halvorsen, who earned the win in relief (3-1).
Hartford and Harrisburg play on Friday night beginning at 7 p.m. Mason Albright will start on the mound for the Yard Goats. The game will be streamed live on MiLB.tv and broadcast on the free Audacity app.
