Ramirez, Ormond shut down Dogs

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PORTLAND – Solid outings on the mound by starter Ismael Ramirez and reliever Rodney Ormond helped the New Hampshire Fisher Cats beat the Dogs on a warm and slightly overcast Saturday afternoon at Hadlock Field.

Righthander Ramirez allowed two hits, one run, and four walks while striking out two batters to even his record at 3-3 and lead the Cats past Portland 4-1.

“He hadn’t thrown since about 10 days ago, before all that rain we had, so he wasn’t nearly as sharp early as he had been, but he hung in there and made good pitches to get out of jams,” said N.H. manager Doug Davis. “After the fourth, he really regrouped and made a lot of quality pitches from that point on.”

Ormond needed just 15 pitches to retire the side in the eighth and ninth innings and earn his second save.

“He had command of two pitches, wasn’t trying to trick anybody, and he was attacking us with his fastball and slider,” said Portland manager Todd Claus. “We had him on the ropes a couple times early, but he definitely got stronger as the game went on.”

The Fisher Cats broke up a tight game and gave themselves some breathing room in the eighth by making Portland pitching pay for walking the bases loaded. Cats right fielder Maikel Jova made it 4-1 Cats with a shot into the right-center field gap for a two-run double.

“He threw me a sinker and I waited for that pitch,” said Jova.

As was the case Friday night, New Hampshire was first to score. The Cats scored two in the top of the third, courtesy of a one-out walk by Carlos Cota, a hit-and-run single to left-center by Manny Mayorson, and back-to-back RBI singles by Adam Lind and Curtis Thigpen. The damage could have been worse had Dogs right fielder Brandon Moss not caught Lind trying to get to third on Thigpen’s single by throwing him out on one bounce.

Portland got one of those runs back in its half of the third on a 325-foot leadoff homer well over the Maine Monster left field wall by Dusty Brown.

FISHER CATS 4, SEA DOGS 1

(Saturday Afternoon)

New Hampshire Portland

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Mayorson, ss 5 1 1 0 Bacani, 2b 3 0 0

Lind, lf 3 1 1 1 VanDerBosch, dh 3 0 0

Thigpen, dh 3 1 1 1 Murphy, cf 4 0 0

Smith, cf 3 0 0 0 Minges, lf 4 0 0

Kratz, c 3 0 0 0 Moss, rf 3 0 0

Jova, rf 4 0 1 2 Spann, 3b 2 0 0

Chiaravalloti, 1b 2 0 0 0 West, 1b 3 0

Cannon, 1b 1 0 0 0 Brown, c 3 1 1

Hassey, 3b 3 0 1 0 Borowiak, ss 3 0 0

Cote, 2b 2 1 0 0

Totals 29 4 5 4 Totals 28 1 2 1

New Hampshire 002 000 020 – 4

Portland 001 000 000 – 1

E-Brown; LOB-New Hampshire 6, Portland 4; 2B-Jova; Spann; HR-Brown; DP-New Hampshire; S-Cota; SB-Smith

New Hampshire IP H R ER BB SO

Ramirez (W, 3-3) 7 2 1 1 4 2

Ormond (S, 2) 2 0 0 0 0 1

Maine IP H R ER BB SO

Seibel (L, 0-3) 5 3 2 2 3 3

Hansack 2 0 0 0 0 3

Burnatay 1/3 0 1 1 1 0

Searles 1/3 0 1 1 1 1

Hertzler 1 1/3 2 0 0 0 0

HBP-Kratz (by Searles); WP-Ramirez; T-2:31; ATT-6,978