PORTLAND — The Portland Sea Dogs (50-27) trailed from the start and had no answer for the arms of the New Hampshire Fisher Cats (32-44) in a 5-1 Eastern League loss on Tuesday night at Hadlock Field.

New Hampshire lefty Daniel Norris faced the minimum in the first and struck out the side after a leadoff walk in the second.

Derrick Gibson reached on an infield single in the third, but Norris picked up a strikeout to keep the Sea Dogs off the board.

In all, Norris struck out nine Sea Dogs through five scoreless innings before allowing a pair of walks in the sixth. After a strikeout, Norris was relieved by Tyler Ybarra, who walked Stefan Walsh to load the bases and hit David Chester with a pitch to force in a run. But, Ybarra escaped further damage and the Fisher Cat bullpen shut the Sea Dogs out the rest of the way.

On the other side, New Hampshire got to Portland starter Mike McCarthy early. Kenny Wilson led off the game with a triple and scored two batters later on a Matt Newman groundball.

After nine of the next 10 Fisher Cat hitters were retired, Newman crushed a solo home run. Jonathan Jones followed with a triple and scored on a K.C. Hobson single. Hobson later scored on a sacrifice fly by Kevin Nolan for a 4-0 New Hampshire lead.

Portland relief pitcher Wilfredo Boscan allowed the final New Hampshire run in the fifth, with Newman picking up his third RBI with a single.

The Sea Dogs and Fisher Cats conclude the threegame series tonight at 6 p.m. Henry Owens (9-3) takes the hill for Portland against New Hampshire’s Scott Copeland (5-6).