April 8, 2022 at 7:00 AM
Cup of Coffee: Fitzgerald stays hot by homering twice, but WooSox suffer first loss of season
4/7 Cup of Coffee: Despite a two-homer effort from a red-hot Ryan Fitzgerald (pictured), Worcester suffered its first loss of the young season on Thursday. Fitzgerald drove in three of his side's four runs. Roberto Ramos drove in the other on his first home run of the year. Rob Refsnyder reached base three times in four trips to the plate. Ronaldo Hernandez threw out a runner attempting to steal second base.
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Worcester dropped to 2-1 on the year by falling to Jacksonville, 8-4, on Thursday night. Ryan Fitzgerald picked up where he left off on Wednesday by taking Jeff Lindgren deep to lead off the first inning. Roberto Ramos showed off his power four innings later by crushing a leadoff solo shot off Lindgren in the fifth. Fitzgerald followed with yet another big fly, this one coming with one runner on and one out in the fifth to give Worcester a 4-2 lead.
Top pitching prospect Connor Seabold made his first start of the season for Worcester. After getting a taste of big-league action last year, Seabold did not have the best of 2022 debuts. The 26-year-old right-hander surrendered two runs (both earned) on four hits, two walks, and one hit batsman to go along with a pair of strikeouts over 3 2/3 innings of work. After recording the first two outs of the fourth, Seabold's night came to an end when he plunked Norel Gonzalez. Silvino Bracho came on to end the frame, but Jacksonville put up a three-spot in the fifth that saw Worcester fall behind by a run at 5-4. From there, Michael Feliz allowed three more runs to cross the plate in the sixth before tossing a scoreless seventh. Derek Holland retired the side in order in the eighth to keep the deficit at four runs, but to no avail.
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Player of the Day: With two more home runs on Thursday, Ryan Fitzgerald has now crushed three homers in his first three games of the Triple-A season. Through his first 12 plate appearances of the year, the versatile left-handed hitter is slashing .636/.667/1.445 with five RBIs to boot. What Fitzgerald did in spring training seems to be carrying over into the regular season, which is an encouraging sign for the former indy baller.
Photo credit: Ryan Fitzgerald by Kelly O'Connor