RailRiders power past IronPigs behind Lombard Jr., Hardman homers
Lombard Jr. doubled again and Hardman went deep twice as Scranton/Wilkes-Barre outlasted Lehigh Valley 6-5 to split the series.
George Lombard Jr. kept forcing the Yankees’ conversation, and Tyler Hardman gave Scranton/Wilkes-Barre the veteran thump it needed in a 6-5 win over Lehigh Valley at PNC Field. The RailRiders turned a one-run game into a statement about upper-level depth, getting a three-run blast from Ernesto Martínez Jr., two homers from Hardman and a ninth-inning finish from Dylan Coleman to split the series.
Lehigh Valley struck first with a sacrifice fly in the opening inning, then Otto Kemp made it 2-0 with a solo homer in the third. Lombard answered the way a top prospect is supposed to answer, ripping a double for his 11th extra-base hit at Triple-A and later scoring on a Marco Luciano single to cut into the deficit. At 21, the 6-foot-2, 190-pound shortstop selected by the Yankees in the first round of the 2023 draft out of Gulliver Prep kept adding to a series that has become a real runway for his bat, as the RailRiders said the double was his fifth of the series.
The game flipped in the fourth. Seth Brown and Hardman singled in front of Martínez, who cleared the left-field fence for a three-run homer and a 4-3 RailRiders lead. Hardman kept the pressure on in the sixth with a homer of his own, then Jonathan Ornelas delivered an RBI single in the seventh to push the lead to 6-3. That was enough cushion until Felix Reyes cut it back with a two-run shot in the eighth, his 15th homer of the season and second of the week.
Scranton/Wilkes-Barre finished it with Coleman, who closed the door after Christian Cairo reached to open the ninth by getting a flyout and a groundball double play. Elmer Rodríguez earned the win despite allowing three runs in five innings, while Carlos Lagrange added another layer to the Yankees’ pitching picture with six strikeouts in relief even though he gave up a homer in his third bullpen outing.
The result nudged Scranton/Wilkes-Barre to 34-34 and dropped Lehigh Valley to 32-37. After losing both ends of a June 12 doubleheader and another tight 6-5, 10-inning game on May 22 against the same opponent, the RailRiders needed this one, and they got it by pairing Lombard’s momentum with Hardman’s power in a game that mattered beyond the final out.
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