STAFF REPORTS
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SYRACUSE — Ben Paulsen and Daniel Palka each hit two home runs on the afternoon as the Rochester Red Wings swept a doubleheader with the Syracuse Chiefs, 6-2 and 10-2, Sunday afternoon at NBT Bank Stadium.
Paulsen, who also hit a grand slam on Opening Day, has now homered in each of the first three games of the 2017 season.
Rochester had to climb out of a 2-0 deficit in game one, doing so with a Kennys Vargas RBI single in the fourth inning and a Mitch Garver bloop single in the sixth, followed by Paulsen’s three-run blast to give Rochester a 5-2 advantage. Vargas added an RBI double in the seventh to cap the scoring.
In Game Two, Rochester took a 1-0 lead in the third inning on ByungHo Park’s RBI single. Irving Falu tied the game for Syracuse in the bottom of the 3rd with a solo home run. Niko Goodrum’s first Triple-A home run the next half inning gave Rochester a 2-1 lead it would not relinquish. Palka hit the first of his two home runs in the 5th, a two-run no-doubter to right, and Paulsen followed with his third homer in as many games to extend the lead to 5-1. After the first two Rochester batters of the sixth inning were retired, Quintin Berry walked, Tommy Field doubled, Matt Hague added a two-run single, Park followed with an RBI double and Palka went deep for the second time in as many at-bats and a five-run inning put the Wings ahead 10-1. Syracuse hit three straight solo home runs off Alex Wimmers in the seventh inning for a final of 10-4.
The Red Wings next head to Buffalo to take on the 3-0 Bisons at 1:05 p.m. Monday.
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