The Hartford Yard Goats hit four home runs, including back-to-back shots in the ninth inning, but fell to the Reading Fightin Phils 5-4 on Saturday night at FirstEnergy Stadium in Reading, Pennsylvania.
Brenton Doyle hit two homers, Michael Toglia tied the Yard Goats single season record with his 22nd homer, and Kyle Datres went deep, but Reading defeated Hartford for the second straight game.
Down 5-2 in the ninth inning, the Yard Goats started the inning with consecutive home runs and had two runners on base when the game ended.
Ethan Lindow did not allow a run over the first four innings as Reading built a 4-0 lead. Doyle started the Yard Goats scoring with a homer in the fifth. Datres homered in the seventh to make it 4-2. Reading made it 5-2 in the seventh.
Sunday night’s finale of the six-game series wasn’t over in time for this edition. The Yard Goats return home to Dunkin’ Donuts Park on Tuesday to begin a six-game series against the New Hampshire Fisher Cats.
Hartford Athletic fall on the road: Memphis 901 FC scored twice late in the first half and closed it out with a goal in the final minutes to beat Hartford Athletic 3-1 on Saturday night in Tennessee.
Prince Saydee gave the Athletic a 1-0 lead in the 37th minute, but Aaron Molloy tied it in the 41st minute for Memphis. Just three minutes later, Molloy was involved again when he looped in a free kick to Zach Carrol, who headed in a goal to give Memphis a 2-1 lead before the half.
In the 87th minute, 901 FC broke through for another goal when Nighte Pickering played a deflection perfectly, bicycle-kicking in a goal from just a few yards in front of Yannik Oettl to give his team a 3-1 lead.
Trey Muse made two saves for the win. Oettl had two saves for Hartford.
Hartford Athletic are back in action next Saturday at home against Indy Eleven.