Spinners make it two in a row over Connecticut 5-2

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It was “Star Wars” night at LeLacheur Park, and the force was with the Lowell Spinners on Saturday night. Much like Friday night’s game when an eight-run third inning led them to victory. Last night it was a five-run sixth that did the trick. It also helped that the Connecticut Tigers left 15 runners on base for the game. It all added up to a 5-2 win for Lowell.

It was a tough night for the Tigers, in a couple of different ways. They took the lead in the fourth against Lowell starter Emmanuel De Jesus who came into the game with an ERA of 9.82 in four starts this year. After getting the first two hitters on ground ball outs, it looked like he might get a third and get out of the frame. But a Will Savage grounder was misplayed by Spinners second baseman Brett Netzer. Lowell manager Iggy Suarez decided at that point to make a pitching change as he brought in Mitchell Osnowitz to face Dylan Bordeaux (4 for 5 on the night) He only needed to see one fastball that he crushed to left center field off the wall. It scored Savage who came all the way from first to give the Tigers a 1-0 lead. Some members of the Tigers thought that ball may have hit above the yellow line for a home run. Manager Gerald Laird was one of them who voiced his feelings and by the time the conversation was over, Laird was tossed from the game for the second straight night.

The Tigers added another run in the fifth to take a 2-0 advantage. Hunter Swilling hit a fly ball to right field off Spinners relief pitcher Dominic LoBrutto that was poorly judged by RF Juan Barriento into a triple. Two batters later he would score on an infield hit by Luke Burch.

On this night the baseball gods were Spinners fans because with one out in the bottom of the fifth the skies opened up and a rain delay ensued.

The delay lasted 33 minutes, but it would force a pitching change that would benefit the home team. Colyn O’Connell was brought on and he would retire the Spinners in the fifth, but never made it through the sixth.

As was the case on Friday night, Lowell batted around in the sixth inning scoring five runs on five hits, Raiwinson Lameda got a two-run double to right to tie the game at 2-2. Next hitter, Brett Netzer, atoned for his earlier error by singling to center to drive in the go-ahead run, 3-2 Lowell. Then, Marino Campana, making his debut with the team after being called up from the Gulf Coast League, hit a wall ball double to right that drove in two and gave the home team a 5-2 lead.

The Spinners pen took care of the rest. Juan Fiorentino was called on to get a five-out save and he did just that. He would give up just one hit and struck out four. He picked up his third save in as many chances, with LoBrutto getting his first win of the season. O’Connell took the loss for the Tigers.

Lowell is now 8-10 on the year and they have won 6 of their last 9 games. Meanwhile, Connecticut is going the other way having lost their last five games to fall to 9-9.

The Spinners go for the sweep on Sunday as first pitch is set for 5:30.