The Binghamton Mets went into their first road game of the season against the New Hampshire Fisher Cats on a three game winning streak and fresh off a sweep of the Erie SeaWolves. They scored their fourth straight win on Thursday night. Binghamton led 7-3 at one juncture and hung on for a 7-6 victory.
The big blow came in the fourth inning with the Fisher Cats leading 3-1. Nick Evans came up and took a breaking ball deep into the night with his third home run of the season. That gave the Mets a 4-3 lead and they were able to hang on.
Zach Lutz got things started for Binghamton in the first when he drove in Evans who doubled earlier in the frame.
New Hampshire came right back with two runs in their half of the first off Binghamton starter Scott Shaw, who gave up eight runs in his last start against Akron. Things got off to a rocky start for Shaw Thursday as he gave up back-to-back doubles to Darin Mastroianni and Callix Crabbe. The Fisher Cats took the lead on a Brad Emaus single.
The Binghamton defense stepped up and got Shaw two outs and he finished the inning with a strikeout of Adam Loewen with the bases loaded. New Hampshire would extend to a 3-1 lead in the second on a Brian Jeroloman home run.
It would stay that way until the fourth inning when Nick Evans hit the three-run big fly. He drove home Luis Hernandez who walked to lead off the inning and Jose Coronado who singled.
Binghamton's lead was extended to 5-3 in the top of the fifth when Zach Lutz led off the inning with a solo bomb to straight away center field. Hernandez singled with one out and Mike Nickeas drove him home with a double to make it 6-3. The Mets final run of the inning came on a Nieuwenhuis double, to bring home Nickeas and give the Mets a 7-3 lead.
All seven runs were charged to Zach Stewart (1-1), who came into the game with an ERA of 1.80.
Shaw was relieved by Clint Everts to start the sixth. Everts, who was designated for assignment last week by the big club, cleared waivers and was re-assigned to Binghamton before Thursday's game. He started by giving up a walk and a single. Later in the inning with one out, Everts threw a wild pitch, allowing the Fisher Cats to get within three at 7-4.
It was the first run given up by the Binghamton Mets bullpen in 16 innings. Quite a turnaround for a group that had started the season by giving up 14 runs in 19 innings in the four game series against Akron.
Loewen followed that up with an RBI double to make it 7-5. That was Everts last pitch of the night as Roy Merritt was called in to get the B-Mets out of the jam and he did just that with a fly out and a strikeout.
Brad Emaus pulled the Fisher Cats within a run, with a seventh inning single but that was as close as the home team would get as Merritt and John Lujan combined to shut them down the rest of the way.
With the win, Binghamton (5-3) pulled into second place in the Eastern League east standings. Trenton leads the division by one game.
For more info: Binghamton @ New Hampshire boxscore
The series at New Hampshire continues tomorrow when Mike Antonini (0-1, 12.27) takes the hill for Binghamton against Marty McLeary (0-0, 6.00).
You can listen to the game on WNBF1290 with Matt McCabe.
Amazin' Stat: The sweep of Erie was the B-Mets first three-game series sweep since June 6-8, 2008 when they swept the New Britain Rock Cats at NYSEG Stadium. At no point during the 2009 season did the B-Mets win.
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