The Richmond Flying Squirrels (24-23) coasted to a cathartic, 9-1, victory over the trenton thunder (27-23) in front of 7,667 at The Diamond on Sunday afternoon. The win was the first in the series for Richmond and snapped a five-game home losing streak. Richmond also improved to 8-0 in Sunday games this season.
The Thunder did open the scoring against right-hander Austin Fleet in the top of the first inning. Fleet walked the first batter of the ballgame, Mason Williams. He promptly swiped second base and scored when Pete O’Brien singled to left field.
The Richmond response came hurriedly against right-hander Bryan Mitchell. With one out in the bottom of the first inning, Kelby Tomlinson laced a single into right field. It was the first of five consecutive hits for the Squirrels. Matt Duffy followed with a single and Mario Lisson lined a single to center field. Tomlinson scored on Duffy’s single, when second baseman Rob Refsnyder threw errantly to first base. The Thunder committed two errors in the inning, but Angel Villalona made it 4-1, and made all the runs earned when he hammered a three-run home run to left-center field. Villalona’s fifth of the season, and second of the series, came on a 1-1 hanging-breaking ball.
On a short pitch count, Mitchell (1-3) retired to the loss after just three innings. He conceded four earned runs on five hits. He registered no walks or strikeouts as he endured his third setback of the season.
Fleet settled in nicely, but settled for a no-decision over four innings. The run in the first was the only run that he allowed. He conceded three hits, walked one and struck out four.
Right-hander Graham Stoneburner followed Mitchell into the ballgame. The Squirrels tacked individual runs on to their lead against him in both the fourth and fifth innings. Eliezer Zambrano knocked in Devin Harris with an RBI ground out in the fourth. Harris had sparked the inning with a double to left field. Villalona recorded his fourth RBI of the afternoon when he singled home Duffy in the fifth for a 6-1 lead.
Richmond gained extra padding to their lead off Stoneburner in the sixth inning. Myles Schroder doubled to left field to start the inning and Zambrano knocked him in with an RBI single to left field.
Two more runs against Stoneburner in the eighth inning capped the scoring for the day. Zambrano added his third RBI of the day with a ground out to score Schroder and Ryan Lollis banged a double off the right-field wall to complete the afternoon offensively.
Right-hander Edwin Quirarte (4-1) earned the win in relief. He worked 2 2/3 scoreless innings for his fourth victory. Right-hander Jose Casilla cleaned up the seventh inning for Quirarte and also handled the eighth inning. Right-hander Derek Law closed out the ballgame, facing the minimum in the ninth.
The finale of the four-game series is scheduled for 12:05 p.m. at The Diamond on Monday afternoon. Richmond RHP Kyle Crick (3-1, 3.28) will make the start against Trenton RHP Caleb Cotham (0-2, 4.57). The Flying Squirrels Pregame Warmup begins at 11:35 a.m. on Sports Radio 910 and SportsRadio910.com.
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Chris Graham
