Harrisburg erupts late, pounds Reading 9-1 behind 16 hits

Harrisburg spent most of Friday night in a tight, one-run game, then turned FirstEnergy Stadium into a runaway with one crushing seventh inning. The Senators broke loose for five runs on seven hits in the frame, batted around the order and rolled past Reading 9-1 behind a season-high 16 hits.

The game had opened with Reading setting the tone early. Kehden Hettiger put the Fightin Phils in front with a second-inning home run, but Harrisburg answered when Cayden Wallace launched his team-leading 10th homer after Sam Brown reached on an error. From there, left-hander Shinnosuke Ogasawara kept Reading quiet, allowing just that one run over five innings while giving Harrisburg a chance to wait out the game.

That chance became a hammer blow in the seventh. Sam Brown led off the inning with an opposite-field home run, his second of the season, and the Senators never let Christian McGowan recover. Wallace doubled, Leandro Pineda doubled him home, Kervin Pichardo lined an RBI single and Max Romero Jr. finished the burst with a two-run home run. By the time the inning ended, Harrisburg had turned a 2-1 edge into a commanding 7-1 lead and had effectively erased any pressure left on the bullpen.

Pichardo was the table-setter and damage-maker throughout the night, finishing 4-for-5 for his third career four-hit game. The Senators kept stacking quality contact after the seventh as the line kept moving, and the final margin reflected how completely the bats took over once Reading’s starter Luke Russo exited. Russo took the loss after five innings, allowing one earned run while striking out eight.

Harrisburg’s bullpen handled the rest, with Thomas Schultz, Sandy Gaston and Erick Mejia covering the final four scoreless innings. Ogasawara got the win and improved to 2-1 as the Senators improved to 26-23, while Reading fell to 23-26. The defeat evened the six-game set at two games apiece with two left, and it also snapped a pattern for the Fightin Phils, who had scored first in every game of the series and had been 16-8 when scoring first coming in. For Harrisburg, the finish mattered as much as the result, keeping the Senators in first-half contention in the Eastern League Southwest race with a blowout built on depth, patience and one ruthless inning.