ERIE, Pa. — The Portland Sea Dogs (45-25) brought their long road trip to an end with a split of two games against the Erie SeaWolves (31-39) Wednesday at Jerry Uht Park.

The Portland Sea Dogs (44-25) led early, but could not complete a late comeback and fell 8-6 to the SeaWolves (31-38) in the completion of a suspended game Wednesday morning.

Portland jumped on the board in the top of the second inning when Matt Spring delivered a two-out, two-run home run off of Erie’s starter, Tommy Collier. Keury De La Cruz scored on the blast to right, Spring’s third home run of the season.

Mike Augliera had taken the mound for Portland when the game began on Tuesday night before rain came, and worked around a two-out double in the first, before the first two hitters reached against him to begin the second. He had tossed just 17 pitches on his abbreviated outing.

Following the second single of the inning, the game went into its third delay and was ultimately suspended and scheduled to resume Wednesday morning at 11:05 a.m.

Wilfredo Boscan took over for Augliera, and resumed the game with the two runners on and no one out. The righty walked Dean Green, the first hitter he faced, to load the bases. Aaron Westlake followed and struck out before Dixon Machado walked and put the first run on the board for Erie.

The rally continued for the home team as Boscan allowed an RBI single to Jamie Johnson and a sacrifice fly to Jason Krizan, which plated another pair and gave the SeaWolves a 3-2 lead.

Portland responded with a run in the fourth and tied it at 3-3 on Keury De La Cruz’s RBI groundout that plated Sean Coyle from third.

Coyle was at it again in the fifth with two on and two out against Guido Knudson of the SeaWolves. The second baseman crushed his second double of the game, scoring Deven Marrero, and gave Portland a 4-3 lead.

The lead was short-lived as the see-saw battle continued between the two teams and Erie took the lead with three runs in the bottom of the fifth.

Three-straight singles began the inning and loaded the bases with nobody out. Devon Travis followed and smacked a two-bagger down the line in left, which scored two and gave Erie the 5-4 lead over Boscan and the Sea Dogs. The inning continued and was capped off with a sacrifice fly off the bat of Steven Moya on which Travis scored and upped the lead to 6-4.

Erie tacked on two more in the sixth thanks to an Aaron Westlake sacrifice fly and an RBI single by Johnson to make it 8-4.

Stefan Welch pulled Portland to within three at 8-5 with a solo shot in the eighth and pushed them another run closer with a sacrifice fly in the ninth to make it 8-6. Jose Valdez finally closed the door with a fly out to left off the bat of Keury De La Cruz.

Boscan (0-2) took the loss for Portland, allowing six runs on eight hits over 4.2 innings. He was backed up by 2.3 scoreless innings from Matty Ott and Aaron Kurcz.

Knudson went 2.2 innings in back of Collier and allowed two runs on six hits before Will Startup (2-1) took over. The lefty also went 2.2 innings in relief and gave up a run on four hits while striking out four. Valdez came on for Kenny Faulk in the ninth and earned his eighth save of the season.

The Sea Dogs picked up an outstanding start from a Double-A rookie and used two home runs to down the Erie SeaWolves 5-1 in the nightcap on Wednesday afternoon.

In the second game of the pseudo-doubleheader, the Sea Dogs trotted out righty Luis Diaz for the first start of his Double-A career, and he did not miss a beat in the transition from Salem.

The Venezuela native went out and retired the side in order in the first inning. He did the same in the second and third as well, picking up two strikeouts along the way.

The Sea Dogs offense backed the fresh starter in the fourth, courtesy of a couple of walks and a big fly. Coyle and Welch drew free passes against the Erie starter, Warwick Saupold. De La Cruz followed with a single to load the bases, before David Chester connected for his first Double-A homer, an opposite field gand slam, which put Portland in front 4-0. The grand slam is the second of the year for Portland; the first came off the bat of Mike Brenly May 19 against Binghamton.

Diaz headed back out to the mound for the bottom half of the inning and retired the 10th man he faced in a row. Krizan was the next man to face the righty, and made Diaz pay by hitting a solo homer and cutting the Portland lead to 4-1.

Marrero pushed the lead back up to four with a solo blast of his own to left which made it 5-1 in the top of the fifth inning.

Diaz (1-0) settled down again and retired the side in order in the fifth and sixth frames to complete his inaugural start with the Sea Dogs. Noe Ramirez took over in the seventh and final inning and delivered it in scoreless fashion, locking down the 5-1 win.

Diaz picked up his first Double-A win with six innings of work. The righty retired 18-of-19 opposing hitters, the one hit being the Krizan homer; he did not walk a batter and struck out four.

The loss went to Saupold (3-8), as the starter went four innings and allowed four runs on two hits; he walked three and struck out five. Nick Avila backed the starter up with three innings of relief, in which he gave up a run on the Marrero homer; he did not walk a batter and struck out three.