Somerset rallies from six down, tops New Hampshire 12-11

Somerset turned a six-run hole into one of the wildest finishes of the Triple-A week, blowing past New Hampshire 12-11 after a six-run seventh inning flipped TD Bank Ballpark on its head.

The Patriots were down 10-6 entering the seventh and then launched the inning that changed everything. Somerset sent 12 batters to the plate, matched its season high in inning traffic, and got the big swings from DJ Gladney and Garrett Martin, whose home runs fueled the club’s sixth multi-home-run inning of the season. By the time the frame ended, Somerset had seized a 12-10 lead and taken control of a game that had looked out of reach only minutes earlier.

New Hampshire had opened with a punch of its own. The Fisher Cats scored six runs in the first inning, with home runs from Jay Harry, Jace Bohrofen and Nick Goodwin, and spent much of the night in front after piling up 15 hits and nine extra-base hits. The loss stung even more because New Hampshire had arrived with momentum after beating Somerset 14-2 on May 28, a night when it tied a franchise record with six home runs.

Somerset’s comeback fit the profile of a lineup that has made big innings a habit. The Patriots recorded their 13th inning of the season with at least five runs, pushed their total to 84 home runs through 49 games, and stayed on pace as one of the most dangerous power teams in the minors. Their 84 homers led Double-A, ranked fourth in MiLB, and stood as a Double-A record in the Research Tool Era dating to 2005. Somerset also stretched its extra-base-hit streak to 49 games, the longest active run in Double-A and the second-longest in MiLB at the time.

The Patriots scored in the first inning as well, lifting their season total to 44 first-inning runs, tied with Frisco for the most in Double-A. The win moved Somerset to 25-24 and dropped New Hampshire to 25-21, with the Patriots improving to 8-9 in one-run games.

A crowd of 5,622 watched the back-and-forth game at TD Bank Ballpark in Bridgewater, New Jersey. First pitch came at 6:36 p.m., the game lasted 3 hours and 16 minutes, and the night opened under clear skies and 78-degree weather with a 10 mph wind blowing right to left. The series continued Saturday with Jackson Wentworth set to start for New Hampshire against Somerset left-hander Kyle Carr.