Fisher Cats 5, Defenders 3

MANCHESTER — Brad Emaus smashed a two-run home run and added a sacrifice fly to help the New Hampshire Fisher Cats rally back from a 3-0 deficit, but the Connecticut Defenders scored two unearned runs in the top of the ninth to pull out a 5-3 victory before a crowd of 5,513 on Wednesday night at Merchantsauto.com Stadium.

For the second straight night, Connecticut (70-52) built an early 3-0 lead. Mike McBryde scored Mike Mooney with a two-out RBI single in the top of the third inning against Luis Perez. Brad Boyer added a run-scoring single in the fifth inning, plating McBryde, and Brett Pill drove in his Eastern League-leading 94th run with a fielder’s choice grounder.

New Hampshire (56-66) began mounting its comeback in the home half of the sixth when Scott Campbell led off with a single off Daryl Maday, and Emaus followed with a two-run blast, his 10th, that landed in the Poultry Products Dinner in the Den, reducing the deficit to 3-2.

The Fisher Cats tied the game, 3-3, in the seventh when Brian Van Kirk clubbed his first career Double-A hit, a ground-rule double to left off reliever Shane Kauffman. Van Kirk took third on Brian Jeroloman’s bunt single and scored the equalizer on Emaus’s team leading sixth sacrifice fly.

The Defenders scored two unearned runs in the ninth against Zach Dials when shortstop Manny Mayorson committed a two-out throwing error, allowing Mooney (single) and McBryde (fielder’s choice) to cross the plate, giving Connecticut a 5-3 lead.

Mitch Lively (2-0) worked one inning, yielding one hit, to earn the win in relief. Matt Yourkin struck out the side in the ninth to record his fourth save in seven chances.

Dials (1-3) was stuck with the loss after allowing two runs, neither earned, on one hit, one walk and a strikeout in one inning.

Perez did not figure in the decision after allowing three runs on nine hits in six innings. The left-hander fanned two and walked one.

NY-Penn League