Erie’s season came apart with the bases loaded in the sixth inning Tuesday night, when a one-run lead became a tie on a four-pitch walk and, two batters later, Caleb Ricketts sent a grand slam soaring over the right-field wall.
Reading scored six times in the inning, added five more runs over the next two frames and ended the SeaWolves’ season with a 13-4 victory at FirstEnergy Stadium.
The collapse was swift but not simple. Erie starter Lucas Elissalt carried a 3-2 lead into the bottom of the sixth before Dante Nori, Aidan Miller and Raylin Heredia opened the inning with three singles. Colin Fields entered with the bases loaded and nobody out, then missed inside on four pitches to Carson DeMartini, forcing home the tying run.
Fields struck out Aroon Escobar, giving Erie its first out and a chance to limit the damage. Ricketts erased that chance. He launched Fields’ pitch deep to right, sending Zyhir Hope back to the wall only to watch the ball clear it for a grand slam and a 7-3 Reading lead.
Pedro León singled before Fields departed, and Reading eventually pushed across another run in the inning on Bryan Rincon’s RBI single against Zane Barnhart. A game Erie had led moments earlier was suddenly 8-3.
The unraveling spoiled the fast start manager Tony Cappicelli had identified as essential before the elimination game. Reading’s late-inning pitching, he said, made early offense particularly valuable.
“The bats early in the game become even bigger with the bullpen that they’ve got in the back end. It really shortens the game for them.”
— Tony Cappicelli, Erie SeaWolves Manager
Erie followed that prescription almost immediately. Peyton Graham drew a leadoff walk in the first, and Hope drove a changeup high and deep to right-center. The ball carried beyond the wall for a two-run homer, giving the SeaWolves the 2-0 lead they needed with their season on the line.
Elissalt protected it through three innings before Reading answered in the fourth. Nori singled, Miller ripped an RBI double down the left-field line and Heredia followed with another single. Miller later scored to tie the game, although Elissalt prevented further damage by retiring the next three batters.
The SeaWolves reclaimed the lead in the fifth without another hit after Izaac Pacheco’s leadoff single. A sacrifice bunt and groundout moved him to third, and he scored when Miller’s throw on Thayron Liranzo’s grounder went awry.
That 3-2 advantage represented Erie’s final lead. Chris Meyers doubled with one out in the sixth but was stranded, leaving the margin at one before Reading’s lineup went to work against Elissalt and Fields.
Elissalt was charged with five earned runs over five innings, striking out five without issuing a walk. Fields allowed three earned runs in one-third of an inning and took the blown save.
Cappicelli had framed the stakes plainly before the first pitch.
“You know, some people call it pressure or whatever, but, like, this is the fun part.”
— Tony Cappicelli, Erie SeaWolves Manager
Once Ricketts’ drive cleared the wall, the rest became a slow extension of the deciding blow. Escobar’s RBI triple made it 9-3 in the seventh. Reading loaded the bases again in the eighth, and DeMartini drove a ball over the center-field wall for the Fightin Phils’ second grand slam, stretching the lead to 13-3.
Reading finished with 13 runs on 14 hits. Erie managed four runs on seven hits, with Meyers going 2-for-3 with a double and a walk.
E.J. Exposito supplied the SeaWolves’ last swing of defiance in the ninth, lining a first-pitch slider over the left-field wall. The home run drew boos as he circled the bases, briefly delaying Reading’s celebration.
It could not change what the sixth inning had decided. Erie entered it six outs removed from the final three innings with a lead. It left five runs behind, its season reduced to one last trip through the lineup.