Norwich — Anthony Hermelyn's two-out single in the 10th inning scored Antony Melendez and lifted the Tri-City ValleyCats to a 3-2 victory over the Connecticut Tigers on opening night of the New York-Penn League season before 6,184 fans at Dodd Stadium, a record crowd for Tigers.

Connecticut trailed 2-1 before tying the game in the eighth inning when Jose Zambrano and Brett Pirtle opened the inning with seasons and Corey Baptist delivered a two-out single later in the inning to score Zambrano with the tying run.

The Tigers had taken a 1-0 lead in the third when Jose Azocar led off the inning with a double and scored when Adrian Alfaro's base hit to left was bobbled by Melendez and Azocar sprinted home.

Connecticut starter Chase Edwards allowed two runs on four hits over five innings with five strikeouts.

The teams resume their series tonight at 7 at Dodd.

Schooners fall

• The Mystic Schooners had their team-record, nine-game winning streak snapped with a 3-1 loss to the New Bedford Bay Sox in a New England Collegiate Baseball League game.

The Schooners (9-2) had only one hit over the first eight innings — a second-inning single by Dan Hoy (Princeton). Mystic scored a run in the top of the ninth when former Fitch standout Aaron Hill (UConn) hit a leadoff double and, two outs later, scored on a single by C.J. Moore (Lamar).

Sam Nepiarsky (UConn) took the loss. Nepiarsky (1-1) allowed three hits and two runs over 6.1 innings, striking out six with two walks.

ECML

• Johnny Rockets broke a tie with a run in the bottom of the sixth inning and held on to beat Three Rivers 5-4 on Thursday night. Josh Vincent had a two-run single in the fifth that tied the game at four and pitched the seventh inning to earn a save. Manny Guzman RBI single broke the 4-4 tie. Walker Cranston had two hits for Johnny Rockets and Tyler Wild had two hits and two RBI for Three Rivers.