Like teenagers breaking curfew, the Portland Sea Dogs seemed reluctant to make their way home Wednesday.

Players kept getting on base at Hadlock Field, but no one could deliver the key hit to help them reach the plate.

Through seven scoreless innings, Portland stranded 16 runners and appeared headed for a regrettable loss to the Richmond Flying Squirrels.

Finally, the Sea Dogs turned their fortunes, scoring four times in the final two innings – three in the ninth – to rally for a 4-3 victory before an announced crowd of 4,079.

Carlos Asuaje was the hero, lacing a two-run single to center field to tie the score, hustling to second base on the throw home, and sliding across with the winning run when Richmond third baseman Mitch Delfino couldn’t cleanly field a ground ball that rolled into shallow left field.

“He’s pretty sure-handed, but I was just running hard all the way,” Asuaje said of Delfino. “As soon as I saw it kick to his left, I was like, ‘All right, I have a shot here.’”

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Asuaje had grounded out to end the seventh inning, leaving two runners on base. Given a second chance to come through, he dug in against relief pitcher Pedro Rodriguez looking for a fastball up in the strike zone. When he got it, he didn’t miss.

“I was trying to be aggressive, especially early in the count. I didn’t want to fall behind,” Asuaje said.

He was just as aggressive with his running, never hesitating as he rounded first and barely beating catcher Jackson Williams’ throw to second. Umpire John Libka at first raised his right hand to his hip as if he was going to signal “out,” but took a longer look and called Asuaje safe.

“I think the biggest part of that play was that he was able to advance to second on the throw,” Portland Manager Billy McMillon said.

That prompted Richmond Manager Jose Alguacil to intentionally walk Sea Dogs third baseman Jantzen Witte, the team’s best hitter.

With one out, cleanup hitter David Chester stepped in with a .155 average, having already left five runners on base. On a full-count pitch, he topped the baseball slowly between Delfino and shortstop Rando Moreno.

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Delfino reached down, but it skipped off his glove and into the outfield for an error that brought Asuaje home for the celebration.

Relief pitcher Jorge Marban pitched a scoreless ninth inning to record his first win for the Sea Dogs. But Madison Younginer’s 21/3 hitless innings before that were even more impressive, keeping the lead to just 3-0 for Richmond heading into the final innings.

Younginer struck out the side in the eighth.

Aneury Tavarez finally broke through for Portland with a run-scoring single in the eighth, but Chester was thrown out at home to end the inning, failing to even slide as the throw came in from right field.

Asuaje made that mistake moot in the ninth.

“It just shows a lot of grit for us,” he said of the rally. “Lately it seems like even if we’re behind late in the game, we always have a shot. We always have one guy that’s going to step up. It’s definitely a morale booster for us.”


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