Harrisburg Senators vs. Erie SeaWolves Series Preview July 7-12

(Erie, PA) - The Harrisburg Senators make the roughly 4.5 hour trip to Erie for an important third series to open the second half. The six game set begins tonight, Tuesday, July 7th and will wrap up with game six on Sunday afternoon before both teams get to reset for a few days during the All Star Break. First pitch for tonight’s Game 1 is scheduled for 6:05 PM from Erie’s UPMC Park.

The Senators come into the series winners of two straight series against Chesapeake and Richmond. They have a record of 6-4 to open the second half as each of the past two series had one game that was rained out. The Senators are 40-39 overall on the season. The Senators come into play tonight with a road record for 3-2 (22-17 Overall) which is good enough for third best in the Eastern League. The Senators will play their first series without recently promoted Cayden Wallace, who is there leader in most offensive categories. The Senators do get a welcome boost as INF Brandon Boissiere has completed his rehab assignment, activated from the IL and assigned to Harrisburg. Boissiere’s bat is a welcome addition for a Senators team searching for one.

The SeaWolves entre this series the hottest team in the Eastern League. They’ve won 9 straight ball games and have opened the first half with a record of 11-1 (47-33 Overall). They currently sits in first place in the Southwest Division’s second half standings. Overall on the entire year, the SeaWolves have chipped away at Richmond’s large lead and now only sit 3.5 games back for the entire season. The SeaWolves are 9-1 in their last 10 games. Erie has lost some of their team’s key contributors to injury or promotion over the last few weeks. John Peck and Brett Callahan were both promoted to AAA Toledo. Izzac Pacheco and Thayron Liranzo have both been placed on the IL with injuries. All four of these players played and had key roles in Erie’s four games to two series win last month in Harrisburg.

The Senators hand the ball to LHP Clemmey looking to build off of his last two solid outings. He defeated Chesapeake back in the end of June and went five strong innings, only allowing 1 run on 3 hits last week against Richmond. The Sens are hopeful Clemmey keeps progressing and coming up with solid outings. He typically keeps his ball club in games so he’ll look for his offensive counterparts to answer the bell. Clemmey pitched against Erie in their last series and the SeaWolves got the best of him. He only went 4 1/3 innings, allowed 6 runs on 7 hits and walked 4.

The SeaWolves hand the ball to RHP Max Alba making his tenth appearance for Erie. His last two outings have been shaky and his ERA has risen to 6.45 on the year. He’s given up 10 runs on 15 hits in his last 6 2/3 innings. His last win came against the Sens in last June when he went 5 innings allowing 3 runs on 5 hits, walking 1 and striking out 5.

We should have a beautiful night for baseball tonight for Game 1 between the Senators and the Seawolves. First pitch coming up at 6:05. Tonight’s starting lineups are below.

Harrisburg Senators: 1. Sam Petersen CF 2. Devin Fitz-Gerald SS 3. Branden Boissiere 1B 4. Caleb Lomavita C 5. Sam Brown LF 6. Cortland Lawson 2B 7. Leandro Pineda DH 8. TJ White RF 9. Kervin Pichardo 3B

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

Game One:

LHP Alex Clemmey (3-5, 4.60 ERA, 76K) vs. RHP Max Alba (1-3, 6.45 ERA, 34K)

Game Two:

RHP Issac Lyon (2-3, 4.81 ERA, 31K ) vs. RHP Kenny Serwa (3-6, 5.37 ERA, 50K)

Game Three:

Riley Maddox (0-0, 9.00 ERA, 4K) vs. Andrew Sears (1-0, 1.69 ERA, 19K)

Game Four:

Senators TBD Opener vs. Jake Miller (0-0, 0.00 ERA, 0K)

Game Five:

Josh Randall (3-2, 4.15 ERA, 36K) vs. Hayden Minton (0-0, 4.22 ERA, 7K)

Game Six:

Alex Clemmey (3-5, 4.60 ERA, 76K) vs. Erie TBD Starter

Game 1 - Tuesday 6:05 PM Game 2- Wednesday 12:35 PM Game 3- Thursday 6:05 PM Game 4- Friday 6:35 PM Game 5- Saturday 6:05 PM Game 6- Sunday 1:35 PM

Chasing Erie- Erie’s off to the best start of any team in the Eastern League’s second half. They’re fresh off of a six game sweep of Akron and lead the Southwest Divison by 3.5 games and lead the Senators by 4 games. The Senators would ideally love to take 4 of 6, or at worst split the series, to keep pace with the division leaders.

Senators Young Arms: With the exception of Senators LHP Alex Clemmey and the opener scheduled for Game 4, the Senators have pitchers with ten AA games or less of experience lined up to pitch this series. Let’s see how they handle Erie’s formidable lineup, but also one that’s taken a bit of an offensive hit the past two weeks with injuries and promotions.

Who will step up from the Sens offense: Cayden Wallace has been promoted. He was the heart and leader of the offense. The Senators staged a furious 5 run rally and the offense recorded 8 hits in their first game without their star. Who is going to step up? The Sens are looking for a boost. Maybe, just maybe, they got one yesterday with news coming down that INF Branden Boissiere has completed his rehab assignment in his return from an injury. He was hitting .289 with the Sens when he was injured and was hitting .313 in his rehab assignment with A- Fredericksburg. The Senators are badly in need of a Boissiere type hitter and it couldn’t have come at a better time.