Somerset Patriots Series Recap Vs New Hampshire Fisher Cats 5/26 - 5/31

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The Somerset Patriots spent the week at TD Bank Ballpark walking a pretty thin line.

There were late rallies, one-run games, sellout crowds, crooked innings, a blowout loss, and enough Jace Avina production to make it feel like every night came with another reason to check the box score.

By the end of Sunday, Somerset had settled for a split with the New Hampshire Fisher Cats.

That probably felt a little frustrating considering the Patriots had chances to take the series, but it also kept them right in the Northeast Division race with 18 games left in the first half.

It was not the cleanest week. It was definitely not boring.

Palencia Starts the Week With a Walk-Off

The series opened with one of Somerset’s better comeback wins of the season.

The Patriots trailed late Tuesday before Manny Palencia delivered a walk-off single in the ninth to beat New Hampshire, 8-7. It was Somerset’s third walk-off win of the season and extended the club’s winning streak to five games.

DJ Gladney gave the offense a major lift with a two-homer night, while Coby Morales added his 10th homer of the season and later tied the game with an RBI single in the ninth. Palencia

finished it from there, continuing a strong stretch at the plate and giving Somerset the kind of win that usually sets the tone for a series.

For a night, it looked like the Patriots might keep rolling.

New Hampshire Punches Back

New Hampshire answered with a 7-3 win on Wednesday, then buried Somerset 14-2 on Thursday.

The Fisher Cats hit the Patriots hard in both games, especially Thursday, when Xavier Rivas was tagged for 11 runs and New Hampshire turned the night into a runaway early. Still, even in the losses, Somerset’s season-long power trends stayed alive.

Owen Cobb homered Wednesday, and Avina went deep Thursday, extending the Patriots’ home run surge and keeping their extra-base-hit streak intact.

That has been the story of this Somerset team all season. Even when the game gets away from them, the power rarely disappears for an entire night.

Friday Night Was the Full Somerset Experience

Somerset fell behind 6-0 in the first inning, trailed 10-6 entering the seventh, and still found a way to win 12-11. The comeback came through a six-run seventh inning that included homeruns from Garrett Martin and DJ Gladney.

Martin’s homer was his Eastern League-leading 16th of the season. He also drove in three runs, walked twice, and scored three times. Coby Morales went 3-for-3 with three RBI and two walks, while Gladney added his third home run of the week.

It was messy. It was loud. It was exactly the type of game Somerset can win because this lineup does not really need nine clean innings. Sometimes it just needs one avalanche.

Kyle Carr Delivers the Best Start of the Week

Saturday was the pitching highlight.

Kyle Carr struck out a career-high 10 batters over 6.2 innings in Somerset’s 4-3 win. He allowed three runs, only one earned, and continued what has quietly become one of the better starter runs on the roster.

Carr finished May with a 1.55 ERA, 36 strikeouts, and only eight walks over five starts. That is not just a nice month. That is a left-hander starting to look like a real weapon in a rotation that has needed stable innings.

Somerset trailed 3-0 before tying the game in the fourth, then took the lead in the seventh when Avina scored on a wild pitch after a leadoff triple. Michael Arias and Kelly Austin handled the final outs, and Somerset moved to within one game of first place at the time.

Avina’s Heater Has Become the Headline

At this point, Jace Avina is not just having a hot stretch. He is building one of the best runs by a Somerset hitter in recent memory.

Avina reached base in every game of the series and pushed his on-base streak to 29 games by Sunday. During that streak, he is slashing .344/.424/.705 with 10 home runs, 25 RBI, and 23 extra-base hits.

He also homered twice during the week, including his 14th of the season on Sunday. That left him one homer shy of his career high, which he set back in 2022 across 64 games. This year, he has nearly matched it in 47 games.

The most impressive part is how complete the production has looked. Avina is not just running into mistakes. He is getting on base, driving the ball, scoring runs, and giving Somerset a real tone-setter near the top of the lineup. His 29-game on-base streak is now the third-longest in Patriots history, trailing only Thomas Milone and Oswaldo Cabrera from the 2021 season.

Sunday Slips Away

The Patriots had a chance to take the series Sunday, but New Hampshire held on for a 3-2 win. Somerset had plenty of traffic, finishing with 11 hits and 14 runners left on base. Avina had three hits, including two doubles and a homer, while Nick Torres and Connor McGinnis each added multi-hit games.

But the big hit never came late. New Hampshire’s bullpen stranded enough runners to protect the lead, and Jace Bohrofen’s eighth-inning RBI double ended up deciding the game.

That loss dropped Somerset to 9-10 in one-run games and left the Patriots two games behind Hartford in the division race.

The Bigger Picture

A split probably undersells how much happened in this series.

Somerset’s lineup continued to look like one of the most dangerous groups in Double-A. The Patriots reached 85 home runs through 51 games, the most by any Double-A team in the Research Tool Era. They also extended their extra-base-hit streak to 51 games, keeping alive one of the more absurd offensive streaks in the minors.

But this week also showed why the Patriots have not fully separated yet. The offense can erase almost anything, but the pitching staff had stretches where it put the lineup in survival mode. When the arms stabilized, like they did behind Carr on Saturday and Chase Chaney’s 5.1 innings Sunday, Somerset looked like a club built for a first-half push.

The Pats can hit with anybody. They can turn a game in one inning. Avina looks like one of the hottest hitters in the Eastern League, Martin is still producing like a middle-of-the-order force, and Morales keeps stacking RBI chances.

Now it comes down to cleaning up enough on the mound to let that offense carry meaningful

games in June.

The series split with New Hampshire was not perfect. But it kept Somerset in the fight, and with three weeks left in the first half, that is what matters most.

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