TROY, N.Y. — Rafael Cabreja hit the first pitch he saw deep over the right field wall for a two-run homer, propelling the Lowell Spinners to an exciting 5-4 victory in the rubber game of a three-game series with the Tri-City ValleyCats yesterday afternoon.
Cabreja's homer, one of four Spinner homer runs on the day, gave Lowell its fifth victory of the season in the team's last at-bat.
Mitch Dening put Lowell (15-18) on top almost immediately, hitting the first pitch of the game over the fence in right field for a 1-0 lead. The Spinners added a run in the fifth, as Luis Sumoza continued his torrid three-game stretch with a solo home run deep into left-center field.
Rafael Gil continued the power surge in the seventh inning, hitting the first pitch of his at-bat over the left field wall for his first home run of the season.
The Spinners continued to show a flair for the dramatic in the top of the ninth inning, as Jon Hee drew a leadoff walk and after an out was made, Cabreja, pinch-hitting for Gil, launched a rocket deep into right field to put Lowell on top to stay.
Dening, Gil and Will Middlebrooks each had two hits, leading a nine-hit Lowell attack that included six extra-base hits. Cabreja, Sumoza and Ronald Bermudez each had a hit for the Spinners. On this three-game trip, Sumoza was 8 for 11 and now he holds a 16-game hitting streak, the longest active hitting streak in the NY-Penn League this season. Sumoza has raised his average from .154 to .303 and is batting .391 over the course of the streak.
Lowell returns home for a brief three-game homestand tonight against the State College Spikes, an affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates.
>Thunder 9, Fisher Cats 8<b>
The New Hampshire Fisher Cats rallied back from an early 5-0 deficit to tie the Trenton Thunder, 5-5, after three innings, and Travis Snider belted his 15th home run and tied a franchise record by drawing four walks, but the Thunder escaped with a 9-8 victory over the Fishers before 5,963 fans at Merchantsauto.com Stadium.
Trenton (63-37) knocked New Hampshire starter Kenny Rodriguez out of the box after two-thirds of an inning by scoring five times. Chris Malec (2 for 5) hit an RBI single, and P.J. Pilittere (2 for 5) and Edwar Gonzalez both hit two-run doubles, giving the Thunder a commanding 5-0 lead.
The Fisher Cats made it 5-3 in the bottom of the second inning when Scott Campbell ( 3 for 4) doubled with two outs and scored on an Eric Nielsen single to left field.
