OLD ORCHARD BEACH — The Raging Tide were happy to play a team other than Nashua or Seacoast, as they lost their last five games at the hands of those two teams. The Brockton Rox followed suit though, as they scored seven runs over the first four innings and sailed to an 8-4 win at The Ballpark Monday night.

Brockton scored a run in the first off Tide starter Dillon Ryan. Jeff Cavanaro doubled with one out, and scored two batters later on Greg Baggett’s single up the middle.

OOB took a brief lead in the bottom of the inning. Tito Lluberes and Boston Langley hit back-to-back, one-out singles. After Dan Fratus flew out, Matt Verrier walked to load the bases and Alex Farkes tied the game with an RBI single. Grayson Porter then mashed a double to left to make it 3-1 Raging Tide. Porter went 3 for 4 and was a lone bright spot for the Tide in this game.

Brockton took the lead back in the top of the second, sending Ryan to the showers early in the process. Vito Perna led off with a single, and Jordan Berry followed with a home run over the tall fence in left. Ryan then gave up singles to three of the next four batters, including Cavanaro’s RBI single that gave the Rox the lead for good. Ryan walked Rhett Wiseman on a full count before being lifted for a relief pitcher. Adam Ogburn came in and got Baggett to ground out to end the inning.

Ogburn’s first full inning of work wasn’t easy. After getting Rob McCunney to fly out to lead off, he gave up a single to Perna. He struck out Berry looking, but then surrendered three consecutive hits, capped off by Tanner Reibenspies’ two-run double through the left side of the infield.

The Rox got another run in the fourth off Ogburn, as Perna hit an RBI single that glared off Ogburn’s glove and into right field.

“Getting in a hole early, that’s kind of been a theme this past week from our starting pitching, so it makes it difficult to come back sometimes,” said Tide manager George Reidy.

The Tide tried to answer back in the bottom of the inning, but ran into some tough luck and a tough reliever. Porter singled to lead off, and scored two batters later on an RBI single by Saige Jenco. Colin Gay then missed a bunt attempt, and Rox catcher Baggett picked off Sam Canales at second for the first out of the inning.

Gay then grounded to short for what should have been a double play, but McCunney couldn’t hold onto the flip, and both runners were safe. That was the end of Rox starter Chris Kalica’s outing, and on came Michael Romano. Romano came on and quickly got the last two outs on a pop up in foul territory and a strikeout.

“We jumped ahead 3-1, and then gave it right back. So that was a little discouraging,” said a frustrated Reidy after the game. “And later on in the game, we had opportunities to execute, and we didn’t do that.”

The Rox scored their final run in the sixth inning off of Nick Whittaker. After Whittaker struck out the first two batters of the inning, he gave up back-to-back walks and a bloop single to right that scored Perna.

The pitching the Tide got from their pitchers in the last three innings was a complete 180 from the first three innings. Henry Van Zant continued his hot start to the season, retiring all six batters he faced in the seventh and eighth innings with three strikeouts.

Van Zant has allowed just one run on the season, and has struck out 27 batters.

“Right now, I’m just trying to throw strikes and hit spots. If you throw strikes, you’ll get batters out,” Van Zant said.

Brett Flutie, nephew of former Heisman Trophy winner and NFL quarterback Doug Flutie, pitched a perfect ninth for the Raging Tide.

— Contact Wil Kramlich at 282-1535, Ext. 323.