The Sussex County Miners (5-10) dropped the second game of their series against the Québec Capitales (11-4) on Wednesday night, falling 7-3 at Stade Canac as the Capitales pitching staff held Sussex County scoreless through the first eight innings.
Québec starter Masatoshi Sakurai (3-0) delivered another strong outing, allowing just four hits and three walks while striking out five across 5.2 scoreless innings. Ian Villers followed in relief and continued the dominant effort, striking out two while surrendering only two baserunners over 1.1 innings of work.
The Capitales carried a shutout into the ninth inning before the Miners finally broke through against reliever Harley Gollert. First baseman Kiko Romero provided the biggest swing of the night for Sussex County, launching a two-run homer for his lone hit of the contest. Later in the inning, Hunter D’Amato added an RBI single as part of a two-hit performance, raising his league-leading batting average to .400.
Miners starter Rob Hensey (1-3) turned in a solid effort despite suffering the loss. The right-hander struck out eight batters over five innings while allowing three runs on five hits. Québec capitalized on timely offense early before adding insurance runs late against the Sussex County bullpen.
Relievers Jacob Widener and Chad Gartland each worked one inning in relief, with both allowing two runs. Widener was also charged with three hit batters during his outing.
The Miners will look to salvage the final game of the series on Thursday night against the Frontier League-leading Capitales. First pitch from Stade Canac is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. EDT before Sussex County returns home for a weekend series against the Brockton Rox. Watch all Miners games live on HomeTeam Network and listen to the live Miners Radio Network broadcast on Mixlr.
Written by Collin Ferguson with Scott Davies
Above: Stade Canac, home of the Québec Capitales. Photo courtesy of The Globe and Mail.