Harrisburg, PA — June 18— Erie and Harrisburg spent most of Wednesday evening trading blows. Each team was up for the others challenge until the late innings of the game. The Sens would use a big four run 8th inning capped by a Cayden Wallace RBI double to extend their 2 run lead to 6. The six run 9th inning lead was more than enough of a cushion for the Sens bullpen to work out some of their kinks and get starter Josh Randall is 3rd win of the season.

Both offenses were up for the task last evening combing to score 17 runs and 23 hits between the two teams. Nationals prospect and Sens RF Ethan Petry may be finding his swing after feeling out AA. The birthday boy hit two long balls and now has 3 AA home runs on the season. Senators slugger Cayden Wallace added 2 home runs to run his total to a team leading 16. Cayden also currently sits in 2nd for most home runs in the league behind only Somerset’s Garrett Martin.

Josh Randall pitched well and made it through 6 innings to earn his third win in his brief tenure with the Sens thus far.

The Sens used the long ball to score 4 of their 11 runs on the evening. The offense broke out 11 base hits all over FNB Field and the Senators offense chased Erie starter Lael Lockhart in the 5th after allowing 4 runs through 4 2/3 innings. While the home runs will get the attention, the key stat last night was 4-9 with RISP. The Senators offense has gone stretches without timely hitting this season so it was a welcome sight to see the Sens hit at a .444 clip with RISP and manufacture runs.

Seven of nine Senators hitters had base hits last night. Cayden Wallace and Ethan Petry were the stars of the evening (stats above). Both sluggers had two home runs on the evening and Wallace added a 2 run double in the home half of the 8th inning to put the game out of reach. Cortland Lawson also added 2 hits, including an RBI double in the 6th. Harrisburg’s bats registered 11 hits on the evening.

For Erie, their big guns had a good night at the plate as well. Brett Callahan, the Detroit Tigers number 28 overall prospect was 2-5, 3B, 1R, 1RBI. John Peck, the Tigers number 13 overall prospect went 3-5, 2B, 3B, 1R, 1K, 1RBI. Chris Meyers added a home run for the SeaWolves, his fourth of the season.

Senators starter Josh Randall had an effective night on the mound and a step in the right direction after facing his toughest test during his last start last week in Richmond. He’s had better outings in a Sens uniform than last night’s game but despite allowing 7 hits he was able to use a couple short innings, including a 7 pitch 5th, to extend his outing and make it through 6. He kept Erie hitters off balance at times with his tremendous breaking ball, only walked two batters and was really only hurt by one pitch that he left out over the plate and Erie’s Chris Meyers put a good swing on it.

The Senators offense also rewarded Randall for his efforts with 6 runs of support through his outing. Randall has now won 3 of his first 4 starts with the Sens. His record sits at 3-1 and he dropped his ERA to 4.09 in the outing.

The Senators bullpen has been a strong point at times this season but struggled a bit during last night’s ball game. Aaron Shortridge, Sandy Gaston and Marquis Grissom Jr combined for 3IP, 4R, 5H, 4BB, 3K in relief on Randall. With some key departures recently, the Sens are looking to new additions to answer the call in the pen.

Senators 3B Cayden Wallace made some excellent plays in the field last night. The Sens have a tremendous weapon on their defense when Johnathan Thomas plays CF, or anywhere really. Thomas’s ability to take control in the outfield and chase down fly balls that look like shots to the gap is a tremendous asset. The Senators defense played a clean game and didn’t have any errors on the evening.

While the game never really seemed in doubt for the Sens in the latter innings, every time Harrisburg went for the knockout punch, Erie kept punching back. The game’s turning point came in the 4 run 8th inning which was jump started by Petry’s big fly over the left center field wall.

Sens are now 33-32 while Erie fell to 33-31. The Sens sit a ½ game behind Erie for 3rd place in the Southwest Division and 1 game back of 2nd place Akron. The Sens are now 14-17 at FNB Field this season, which is 2nd worst in the Eastern League. A stat that will inevitably have to change in the 2nd half for the Sens to have success.

Last night’s game took 2 hours and 34 minutes to complete and was played in front of crowd of 3,390 fans.

The Senators and SeaWolves will meet again Thursday evening for Game 3 of the series. The series is locked at 1 game a piece and the season series is now tied at 7 wins for each team through 14 games. Thursday night’s match up features Senators RHP Issac Lyon (0-3, 8.22 ERA) making his fifth AA start. He will be opposed by Erie’s LHP Carlos Pena (3-2, 5.50 ERA). First pitch for Game 3 from City Island is scheduled for 6:30pm.