The Harrisburg Senators will welcome an unusual opponent to FNB Field this weekend. Northeast Division foe, the New Hampshire Fisher Cats, makes the long journey to City Island for a rare three game set. Tonight will be the team’s first match up of the season. Both teams are in good position to start the second half of the season. The Fisher Cats are currently in third place in the Northeast Division, one game behind Portland and Reading who are currently tied. The Senators open post All Star Break play losers of three straight and are in fourth place and four games back or leading Erie. New Hampshire comes into tonight’s game winners of 5 of their last 10 games, while the Senators come into tonight winning 6 of their last 10.

The Senators hand the ball to RHP Issac Lyon who has been exceptional of late. Lyon has won 3 of his last 4 starts and has won two straight against Richmond and Erie, two of the top lineups in the Eastern League. Lyon has certainly solidified himself as an integral part of this Senators pitching staff. Tonight will be Lyon’s 9th appearance with the Senators. Thus far in the month of July, Lyon is 2-0 with a 2.08 ERA in two appearances. He’s pitched 13 innings, allowing 3 runs on 12 hits, walking 1 and striking out 8.

The Fisher Cats will counter with RHP Gage Stanifer. Stanifer will be making his 17th appearance with the team tonight. He spent most of last season the A ball in the Toronto system before a early September call up to the Fisher Cats. Stanifer has had a rough go of things thus far in July. He’s thrown only 5 1/3 innings in his last two starts, allowing 6 runs on 9 hits, 3 home runs, walking 4 and striking out 10. His last win came on June 25th against the Somerset Patriots. Stanifer is the Toronto Blue Jays # 6 overall prospect in the organization.

There’s nothing better than weekend baseball on City Island. Friday night baseball and fireworks. Here’s to a good weekend of baseball for the home team. Lineups are out and below. First pitch is coming up at 7 o/clock.

New Hampshire Fisher Cats Lineup- 1. Nick Goodwin 2B 2. ArjunNimmala SS 3. Eddie Micheletti Jr RF 4. Herbert Perez DH 5. Victor Arias CF 6. Dub Gleed 3B 7. Jorge Burgos 1B 8. Carter Cunningham LF 9. Patrick Winkel C

Harrisburg Senators Lineup- 1. Sam Petersen CF 2. Devin Fitz-Gerald 2B 3. Branden Boissiere DH 4. Ethan Petry 1B 5. Sam Brown LF 6. Caleb Lomavita C 7. TJ White RF 8. Kervin Pichardo 3B 9. Cortand Lawson

What looked like such a promising start to last week’s series took a complete 180 quickly on the visitors. The Senators game out of the gate hot to open the series. They won the first three ball games by a combined 9 runs. The Sens would go onto lose 3 straight by a combined 13 runs to end the weekend and limp into the All Star Break. The Sens lost a heart breaker on Sunday afternoon 3-2 in extra innings after scoring the tying run in the top of the 9th and leaving the go ahead runs on 2nd. Overall it was a pretty good series but the Sens offense ultimately didn't do enough to put runs on the board in the last three games. The Sens would finish the weekend falling to 4 games back of Erie for the Southwest Division lead.