Red Wings flip game late as Champlain stays unbeaten

Chandler Champlain pitched seven innings and the Rochester Red Wings used a two-run seventh to beat the Lehigh Valley IronPigs 3-2 on Friday night at ESL Ballpark.

The win moved the Red Wings to 23-20 while Lehigh Valley dropped to 20-23.

Champlain improved to 4-0, allowing five hits and two runs over seven innings with one walk and three strikeouts.

Trey Lipscomb gave Champlain an early lead in the second, hitting a two-out solo home run to center off IronPigs starter Alan Rangel. Rangel held Rochester to one run on three hits over six innings with seven strikeouts and one walk.

Lehigh Valley answered in the fourth when Otto Kemp reached and scored from first on Liover Peguero’s RBI double to left. The IronPigs moved in front 2-1 an inning later, as Christian Cairo walked, stole second and came home on Sergio Alcántara’s sacrifice fly to left.

Seventh inning proves pivotal for Red Wings

Champlain and the Rochester defense escaped a bigger jam in the seventh after Bryan De La Cruz opened the frame with a double to right. Cairo’s sacrifice bunt moved De La Cruz to third, but a fielder’s choice from Caleb Ricketts resulted in De La Cruz being cut down at the plate before Champlain struck out Carter Kieboom to end the inning.

Rochester flipped the game in the bottom half against reliever Zach Pop. Yohandy Morales, who finished 2-for-2 with a double and a walk, started the rally with a double to right. He advanced to third on an Andrés Chaparro groundout and scored when lined an RBI double to left to tie the game 2-2.