Braiden Ward hit a grand slam to help the Hartford Yard Goats roll to a 12-2 Eastern League victory over the New Hampshire Fisher Cats Saturday night before a sellout crowd of 7,279 at Dunkin Park.

The Yard Goats (41-32, 3-2 second half) had 13 hits as they won for the third time in the last four games. Ward went 2-for-4 with five RBI with the first grand slam of his professional career.

Hartford’s Bladimir Restituyo went 3-4, with three runs scored and an RBI single while Sterlin Thompson (2-for-3, two RBI) hit his third home run of the series in the fifth inning.

Starting pitcher Jarrod Cande (5-5) earned his fifth win of the season, allowing two earned runs in five innings of work. He struck out six. His teammates in the Yard Goats bullpen gave up one hit and struck out four in the remaining four innings.

New Hampshire (32-41, 2-3 second half) took a 1-0 lead in the first inning when Devonte Brown had a two-out RBI single.

Hartford’s Warming Bernabel worked a walk to lead off the second inning and Thompson followed with a walk of his own to put runners at first and second with no outs. After Fisher Cats starter Michael Dominguez picked up two strikeouts, Nic Kent’s single scored Bernabel from second to tie the score at 1-1.

Hartford’s AJ Lewis walked to load the bases and set the stage for Ward who crushed a grand slam into the right field upper deck to make it a 5-1 ballgame.

The Fisher Cats made it a 5-2 ballgame off a Glenn Santiago sacrifice fly.

In the bottom of the fourth inning, Restituyo led off with a single before stealing second and third base. Restituyo then was awarded home plate on a balk by Hunter Gregory to make the score 6-2.

The Yard Goats extended their lead in the bottom of the fifth inning with a two-run home run from Thompson that made it an 8-2 ballgame. Ward came to back again with the bases loaded in the fifth inning and added a sacrifice fly to bring the score to 9-2.

In the sixth inning the Yard Goats struck with two outs as a Zach Kokoska RBI triple pushed the score to 10-2.

Hartford concludes this week’s series with a game on Sunday at 1:10 p.m. at Dunkin Park. The Goats have won seven of their last 10 games.

The Yard Goats wore uniforms honoring Hartford’s Johnny “Schoolboy” Taylor on Saturday. (Photo courtesy Hartford Yard Goats)

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Celebration of Negro League Baseball
Saturday was the Celebration of Negro League baseball in Hartford. Fans had the opportunity to watch a 42-minute documentary, “The Other Boys of Summer”, listen to a live panel and enjoy a block party prior to the game with the Fisher Cats.

The panel included Pedro Sierra, Negro League player (1954-1958 Indianapolis Clowns & Detroit Stars), Walt Harrison, baseball historian, Emeritus President of the University of Hartford, and Nkwa Asonye, award winning sports reporter from WFSB Channel 3.  The documentary screening, panel, and block party were free and open to the public.

The Yard Goats took the field as The Hartford Schoolboys, a brand and identity complete with uniforms inspired by Johnny “Schoolboy” Taylor.  The Yard Goats honored Taylor with a specially designed uniform, and changed their name to the “Hartford Schoolboys.” The Schoolboys logo features an oversized “H” which was created from an “H” on a uniform in an old photo and the full logo features a silhouette of Johnny pitching.

Taylor was a baseball legend from the South End of Hartford, and one of the most famous Negro League players from that era.

Taylor signed a professional contract as a 19-year-old pitcher in 1935 with the New York Cubans, and had a fantastic first season in the Negro National League. “Schoolboy” was named to the Negro League All-Star team in 1938, and many feel he is the greatest baseball player to come out of Hartford. At the age of 33, Taylor became the first black athlete to play professional baseball in Hartford when he played for the Hartford Chiefs in 1949.

Taylor played baseball in the sandlots around Hartford and was a track and field athlete before joining the Bulkeley High baseball team for his senior year. In his last ever high school game, he set a Connecticut state record with 25 strikeouts against New Britain High.

One of the highlights in Taylor’s career was pitching a no-hitter to beat the Nego Leagues All-Star team and ace pitcher Satchel Paige at the Polo Grounds in New York in 1937. The six-foot, 165-pound right-hander once pitched his team to victory hurling 22 innings in a game at Bulkeley Stadium.

His time in the Negro League was spent playing for the New York Cubans (1935-1936, 1940, 1945), Pittsburgh Crawfords (1938), Toledo Crawfords (1939) and Newark Eagles (1940). Taylor left the United States to pitch in the Mexican League in 1941.

Learn more about Johnny “Schoolboy” Taylor from the Greater Hartford Twilight League and the Society for American Baseball Research.

CONCORD, NH — Here are the Top 10 most popular stories and posts from around New Hampshire Patch sites last week.

1. Several Law Enforcement Agencies And SWAT At Standoff In Merrimack: Update: After several hours of the person not communicating, officers made entry, found the person had a fatal self-inflicted gunshot wound.
2. NH Man Who Threatened GOP Presidential Candidates Found Dead In Concord Hospital Garage: Tyler Anderson was found dead in a parking garage on Wednesday night after partially deadlocked jury found him guilty on a single count.
3. Cops, FBI Investigating Unattended Death At Concord Hospital Parking Garage: The search for a stop-and-hold subject, possibly armed, in the West End leads to a body found inside a car in a Langley Parkway garage.
4. Boy Found Dead In Lake; Hot Rods Torched During House Fire; New Movies; More: PM Patch NH: NH man faces VT bank robbery charge; pols battle during Dobbs anniversary; cops say woman chased man through park in SUV; AG sues TikTok.
5. Wrong-Way Driver On 293 In Manchester Causes Serious Head-On Crash: Firefighters worked to extricate one of the victims with serious injuries. A large debris field closed the highway Saturday morning.
6. Funnel Cloud Reported In Manchester As NH Under Tornado Watch: The National Weather Service issued tornado warnings for several communities.
7. Lightning Strikes House, Funnel Spotted During T-Storms, Tornado Watches: PM Patch NH: Also: Gun threat in city garage; indictments; wrestlers compete; wrong-way driver crash; report says fire chief violated town policies.
8. Crashes At Tollbooth; Corpse Abuse Arrests; Motorcyclist Stopped; More: Nearby News NH: Also: Fatal house fire; biker flees crash; homeless sex offender, convicted 7 times, arrested again; fugitive alert; political notes; more.
9. Computer Glitch Temporarily Closes Liquor Stores; Ruggles Mine Reopens; More: PM Patch NH: Also: Libertarian Party VP stumps in NH; Patch, news partners win awards; crashes; D’Allesandro podcast; a castle in the clouds, for sale.
10. Concord Police Investigating Gun Threat Incident At Durgin Block Garage On School Street: Security footage and witness testimony assist officers in arresting at least one man on Friday night in Downtown Concord.

Here are some other posts readers may have missed:

Someone Is Stealing Kias And Hyundais In Concord; Police Seek Tips

The teacher is currently working as a teacher and plans to teach this summer, according to the complaint.

A private school teacher in New Hampshire faked an illness so she could drive a student to get an abortion without the knowledge of the student’s parents.

The student was at least 18 years old at the time and therefore under state law did not need the permission of her parents, the teacher says in a lawsuit filed this week seeking to get back her teaching license, which she says the state revoked earlier this month.

The pregnant student didn’t want to tell her parents and didn’t have a ride to the abortion facility, and the abortion could be performed only on a Friday, which was a school day, the teacher says in the complaint.

So the teacher faked food poisoning in order to leave school and drive the student to get the abortion, according to a redacted report by the New Hampshire Department of Education published by The Boston Globe.

The teacher, identified in court papers as Jane Doe, says that she did not try to persuade the student, identified in court papers as Student A, to have an abortion, which she says occurred during the fall of 2023.

“It was very important to Doe that she provided Student A with access to information and resources to make an informed decision but did not influence Student A’s decision. Doe wanted Student A to be empowered to make an informed decision about her own health care and expressed to Student A that she would do what she could to support her irrespective of her decision,” the teacher’s lawyers wrote in the complaint, filed Monday, June 24, in Merrimack County Superior Court in Concord, the state capital.

The school fired her the following week after school officials learned what happened.

The teacher says state education officials investigated and asked her to give up her teaching credentials but never held a hearing before she was informed on June 17 that her teaching credential had been revoked.

In addition, the teacher says the state’s education commissioner, Frank Edelblut, a Republican, published an article in April referring to her that she describes as misleading.

“How should the department respond,” Edelblut wrote in the article, before describing several instances of what he considered poor behavior by educators, including:  “… when, allegedly, an educator lies by calling in sick so they can take a student — without parental knowledge — to get an abortion.”

The teacher’s complaint argues that Edelblut’s article implies that she “helped a minor circumvent New Hampshire’s parental notification law,” even though, she says, Edelblut “knew that Student A was an adult months before Edelblut made the statement.”

A spokesman for the state Department of Education contacted by CNA on Friday referred questions to a spokesman for the New Hampshire attorney general’s office.

“We will review the complaint and respond as appropriate in due course. We would not comment on an open agency matter or pending litigation,” a spokesman for the attorney general’s office told CNA on Friday.

The teacher is currently working as a teacher and plans to teach this summer, according to the complaint.

The state’s education agency has scheduled a pre-hearing conference concerning her teaching credential for July 16, according to the teacher’s complaint.

The Boston Globe reported Thursday that the teacher’s teaching credentials have been restored while the case is pending.