STAFF REPORTS
Tommy Field had three hits and two RBI, helping the Rochester Red Wings defeat the Syracuse Chiefs 9-3 Friday night at Frontier Field. The teams meet again Saturday night at 7:05 p.m., with the Zooperstars! performing during the game, and fireworks after the game.
Action started early in the bottom of the first inning as back to back walks by Chiefs pitcher Sean O’Sullivan set up a two-run double by Tommy Field that brought home both Mitch Garver and Matt Hague. Two batters later Field scored on a single by ByungHo Park making it 3-0 Red Wings.
Syracuse answered quickly in the top of the second with two hits that led to a three-run home run by Pedro Severino off of Adam Wilk that tied the game at 3-3.
O’Sullivan’s night came to a close early as he pitched three innings, allowing five hits and three runs, all of them earned. He walked two and struck out one on 60 pitches with 37 of them being strikes.
Field led off the bottom of the sixth by notching his third hit of the ball game with a single. Two batters latter Park also singled giving the Wings runners on the corner with only one out. After Niko Goodrum was robbed of a hit that would have scored a run, John Ryan Murphy gave the Wings the lead back with an RBI single that scored Field making it 4-3 Rochester.
Wilk was relieved in the top of the seventh inning by Alan Busenitz. Wilk finished his first ever Frontier Field start with six innings pitched, allowed three runs on five hits, all runs were earned. He struck out five and walked only one with 74 pitches, 50 being strikes. After his rough second inning, Wilk rebounded by retiring the next 13 out of 16 batters that he faced.
In the eighth inning, Goodrum singled to add an insurance run and make the score 5-3. A two-run hit from Murphy boosted the lead to 7-3, and two more runs scored on a dropped infield pop fly to make it a 9-3 game.
Drew Rucinski added a scoreless relief inning.
