The Erie SeaWolves had only four hits Thursday night. With the way they pitched, that was all they needed.

Andrew Navigato, Quincy Nieporte and Dane Myers hit solo home runs, and Erie stayed hot with a 3-1 victory over the Portland Sea Dogs in front of a crowd of 5,686 on an 83-degree night Hadlock Field.

Starter Adam Wolf threw four shutout innings to highlight a stellar pitching night for Erie, which allowed three hits en route to winning its third straight against Portland and ninth in 10 games.

“We know that they’re a dangerous team over there. It’s about trying to get ahead of the hitters and playing good defense most of the way,” said Erie Manager Gabe Alvarez, whose team improved to 20-9 in the second half of the season. “That’s something we’ve done the whole year.”

The Sea Dogs lost for the eighth time in their last 11 games, including five straight losses, and fell to 17-13 for the second half of the season. Portland left seven runners on base and didn’t score until Stephen Scott homered in the ninth.

“They’ve thrown some good arms at us,” Portland Manager Chad Epperson said. “Right now we’re being a little bit overaggressive. It’s almost like we’re getting the fastball and missing it, and then we’re getting ready not to miss it and they’re throwing the off-speed and we’re kind of out in front.”

Erie found a quick way to score in the fifth. After two quick outs, Navigato turned on Kyle Hart’s 1-0 offering and lofted a high fly to left that eventually cleared the tall left-field fence and landed 382 feet away.

Erie struck again an inning later. Nieporte led off the sixth by blistering a line drive that flew into the netting above the wall at 108 miles per hour, putting the SeaWolves up 2-0.

Myers, who made a diving stop at third base to take away a hit from Nick Northcut in the fourth, made it 3-0 when he led off the ninth with a home run to right-center field.

“Hits were hard to come by for us tonight,” Alvarez said. “But we made them count.”

It was plenty of support for an Erie pitching staff that kept Portland in check in a 1-0 win on Tuesday and had all the answers again Thursday. Wolf threw 41 of 58 pitches for strikes and allowed only two singles to Northcut and Hudson Potts, walking none and striking out six. Yaya Chentouf, Gerson Moreno, Zac Houston and Bubba Derby allowed one hit in five innings of relief, striking out seven.

The night featured the return of Thad Ward, who was making his first appearance for the Sea Dogs since May 2021, when he was sidelined before undergoing Tommy John surgery. Ward walked five in 3 2/3 innings, including three in the first inning, but kept Erie scoreless.

“I think he was just amped up (in the first),” Epperson said. “For him to be able to keep damage to a minimum like he did and make pitches with traffic out there, I thought it was very impressive. … The guy competed and made pitches when he needed to.”

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