The Senators bring a 1-0 series lead into today’s matinee Game Two against the SeaWolves after last night’s 4-3 come from behind victory. Coming into today’s game, which will be the 20th played in four series between the two, Erie holds a ten games to nine lead over the Sens. The Sens will look to draw even with Erie in the season series and take a 2-0 lead on the current series in today’s game. The Sens open today’s game in fourth place in the Southwest Division standings but only trail Richmond and Chesapeake, who are tied for second, by a ½ game. The Senators can pull a game closer to Erie, who leads the division and the Senators trail by 3 games, with a win today. The Senators snapped Erie’s 9 game winning streak last night and come into play today 7-3 in their last 10 games. Erie is now 9-1 in their last 10.

The Senators hand the ball to RHP Issac Lyon who will make his eighth start of his AA career. Lyon has won two of his last three starts beating both division rivals Erie and Richmond in those two victories. He last pitched against Erie on June 18th going 6 2/3 innings allowing 1R, 2H and striking out 5. He earned the win in the outing. He’s pitched extremely well of late after some early June struggles. Lyon has inserted himself as a key part of this Senators starting rotation.

The SeaWolves will counter with RHP Kenny Serwa. Serwa pitched tremendously well in the month of June winning 2 of his 4 starts and finishing the month with a 1.27 ERA. In 21 1/3 innings he gave up only 3 runs on 12 hits, walking 8 and striking out 17. In his last outing last week against Akron he went only 3 innings and allowed 7 runs on 8 hits, two of which were home runs.

We have lunchtime baseball today at UPMC Park. Senators and SeaWolves from sunny Erie, PA. Should be a beautiful day for baseball. First pitch coming right up at 12:35.

Harrisburg Senators Lineup: 1. Sam Petersen CF 2. Devin Fitz-Gerald SS 3. Branden Boissiere DH 4. Ethan Petry 1B 5. Sam Brown LF 6. Cortland Lawson 3B 7. Max Romero Jr C 8. TJ White RF 9. Kervin Pichardo 2B

Erie SeaWolves Lineup: 1. Seth Stephenson CF 2. Peyton Graham SS 3. Justice Bigbie RF 4. Garrett Pennington DH 5. Andrew Jenkins 1B 6. Max Burt 3B 7. Patrick Lee LF 8. Joey Campagna C 9. Viandel Pena

The Senators have been providing the late inning theatrics during their last two ball games. They scored five runs in the last three innings of Sundays ball game to come back and shock Richmond. In last night’s ball game they scored all four runs in the last three at bats and counterpunched every Erie strike late in the game.

The Senators were sleeping at the wheel offensively last night through 6 2/3 innings. Two hits. Fourteen batters straight retired from the third through two outs in the sixth. Insert Leandro Pineda. Pineda got a pitch right down the middle of the plate from Erie RHP Eric Silva and he didn’t miss it. As a matter of fact he hit it over everything in right field, an estimated 424 feet. The teams would trade punches in the 8th as Branden Boissiere welcomed himself back to AA with a 2 run double. Erie would have back to back doubles from Justice Bigbie and Garrett Pennington to tie the game back up at 3. The big blast of the evening came off the bat of TJ White that only the 2,418 fans in attendance saw, thanks to a power outage in the press box causing game feed to disappear. Holden Powell would come on in the ninth and slam the door on Erie 1-2-3 and end the game on a rare strike three time clock violation on batter Patrick Lee. Sens would go onto win Game One 4-3.

The Senators and SeaWolves play Game 3 Thursday evening at UPMC Park. First pitch is scheduled for 6:05 PM. Riley Maddox, fresh off of his promotion from A+ Wilmington, is scheduled to make his first start (2nd appearance) for the Senators. After a rehab appearance on Friday evening by Washington Nationals RHP Trevor Williams, Riley came out of the pen to throw 5 innings for the Sens. Richmond’s offense got the best of him that evening as they would score five runs on eight hits, including two home runs. Maddox would allow a walk and strike out four. The SeaWolves will hand the ball the LHP Andrew Sears (1-0, 1.69 ERA) who will be making his 5th appearance with the SeaWolves since his promotion from A+

Last night’s Game one ended with an unusual occurrence. A time clock violation on the batter with two strike and two outs in the bottom of the 9th inning in a one run ball game. In the pitch clock era, a batter must be in the box, ready to hit and engaging the pitcher with eight seconds or greater on the pitch clock. If they are not, an automatic strike is awarded. In this case it was strike three and the end of Erie’s last chance for the evening. In some brief research, I’ve only found where this has happened in two other baseball games. It happened in a Boston Red Sox- Atlanta Braves Spring Training Game in 2023. It also happened in an NCAA game between NC State and Auburn in May of this year.