Rice and Dunham Power Patriots in Dominant Victory

After struggling the past two days against the revamped Binghamton Rumble Ponies, the Yankees Double-A affiliate took the Mets Double-A squad to the proverbial woodshed, bouncing them 14-0 on Thursday night.

Leading the way was catcher Ben Rice, who collected a career-best four hits on a night Somerset pounded out 17 hits.

Of his four hits on the night, Rice cracked a three-run homer in the bottom of the second inning that helped Somerset build a 7-0 lead.

Since his call-up to Somerset, Rice has six home runs and is batting an astounding .319. For a team that is missing a number of key players, including Tyler Hardman and Trey Sweeney on the Injury List, Rice has been a huge addition to the lineup.

As for the game itself, every single Patriots player in the lineup had a hit; five of them had multi-hit games.

Jasson Dominguez (2-for-5, two runs scored) notched his 28th multi-hit game of the season. The Yankees' number-one prospect has now strung together eight multi-hit games in his last 13 contests.

Meanwhile, Elijah Dunham continues to swing a hot bat in this series against the Mets Double-A affiliate. Dunham was 3-for-5 with a three-run homer in the fifth inning.

Augustin Ramirez (2-for-5, two runs scored, an RBI) enjoyed his best day since his call-up to Somerset earlier this week. Ramirez was hitting .384 at High-A Hudson Valley before his promotion.

In addition, Eduardo Torrealba, who made his return to Somerset a week ago after spending most of the season at Hudson Valley, delivered a pair of hits and two runs scored.

On the hill for the Patriots, Richard Fitts continued to give opponents fits. The Patriots ace tossed seven shutout innings, allowing only a pair of hits with seven strikeouts. He leads the Eastern League in strikeouts with 130, and his 1.09 WHIP is the lowest in the league.

The series continues tonight with postgame fireworks.