BUFFALO- The Bisons took advantage of one last outing at Coca-Cola Field for the 2017 season by defeating Pawtucket on Thursday night, 4-2.
Coming from behind one score in the eighth inning, the Herd capitalized on a span of four pitches to grab three runs and cap off the victory.
Roemon fields began the march to the win in the eighth with a line drive single to centerfield and Christian Lopes kept a careful eye to put two on base with no outs. Three straight Herd singles then sent the game into a frenzy of scoring. Michael Saunders, Rowdy Tellez, and Teoscar Hernandez batted ground balls towards all three corners of the field to rack up three runs in dramatic fashion.
The Herd's first score of the day came on a hammered ball to left-centerfield by Christian Lopes in the sixth frame. The ball just made it past the wall for Lopes' sixth home run of the year and ended the 0-0 gridlock between the Bisons and the PawSox.
Getting Pawtucket on the board in the seventh was Witte and Dan Butler with back-to-back doubles. Both balls were line drives to left field to tie up the game at one apiece.
Pawtucket took the lead once the eighth frame through a string of success that began with a leadoff walk by Brian Bogusevic. Matt Dominguez followed that up with a grounder to left field that put Bogusevic in prime scoring position at third. Jantzen Witte delivered the potential winning hit with a ground ball single to right field.
Ryan Borucki made his Triple-A debut in the game in preparation for a September promotion to Toronto when Major League rosters expand and didn't disappoint. The southpaw went six full innings scoreless for a quality start that featured six strikeouts. Before calling it a day, Borucki yielded six hits and a walk but found a way out of every jam he faced.
Chris Smith was credited the win with his two innings of relief. He allowed two runs and four hits in that span. Leonel Campos closed the game out with a perfect inning and two strikeouts.
Buffalo will head down the NYS thruway to play their final series of the season against the Chiefs of Syracuse. The four-game road set will begin on Friday at 7:05 p.m. with Chris Rowley (3-5, 2.79 ERA) on the mound. Syracuse will give the start to Jacob Turner (2-5, 5.19 ERA).
BISONS NOTES: The Bisons have namedtheir team awards for this season. Roemon Fields was named the 2017 Team MVP and Murphy Smith is this year's Most Valuable Pitcher among other accolades...Roemon Fields is now just one stolen bag from tying Tony Womack's single-season record for the Herd from 1994...The Bisons have won 19 of their past 31 games...The win today gives the Herd a winning record at home at 36-35...The last ten home games have had 115,800 spectators, inclding a final home stand with 47,530 fans in attendance.
