Richmond Flying Squirrels back under .500 with loss to Trenton Thunder

The Richmond Flying Squirrels (61-62) were stymied for the third time this season by Trenton lefty Caleb Smith in a 6-0 loss at ARM & HAMMER Park on Friday night. Smith outshined Squirrels righty Chase Johnson in a game that featured a combined 26 strikeouts. Smith punched out a season-high 11 while Johnson recorded nine K’s in his Double-A debut. The nine strikeouts were the most for a Squirrels pitcher in a single contest this year. The series continues on Saturday night in New Jersey with RHP Tyler Beede on the mound.

The Thunder gave Johnson a bit of difficulty over the first two innings in his Double-A debut. Virginia-native Jake Cave singled to lead off the inning and stole second base. Tony Renda then reached on a strikeout-wild pitch and Rob Segedin brought home both runners with a base hit for a 2-0 lead. Trenton added three more runs in the second with Segedin providing another RBI single for a 5-0 edge.

Despite the early runs, Johnson missed his fair share of bats in first start with the Squirrels. The hard-throwing right-hander struck out nine batters over four innings. He allowed five runs on seven hits with two walks on 89 pitches in taking in the loss.

Thunder lefty Caleb Smith continued his dominance of the Squirrels in the victory. Smith struck out a season-high 11 batters while allowing just four hits over six shutouts innings. He has not allowed a run over 18 innings against Richmond this year.

Perdo Rodriguez entered for Johnson in the fifth and hurled a scoreless inning of relief. The Thunder extended their lead to 6-0 off Kyle Crick in the sixth. Cito Culver and Cave connected on base hits to set up Tony Renda’s sacrifice fly to right field.  Richmond utilized five pitchers in the game. Braulio Lara tossed a scoreless and Phil McCormick tossed a scoreless seventh and eighth inning

The Squirrels continue the three games series in Trenton against the Thunder on Saturday night.RHP Tyler Beede (2-7, 4.72) will make the start against Thunder RHP Cale Coshow (0-1, 4.50) First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 with the Pregame Warmup beginning at6:45 PM on Fox Sports 910 and FoxSportsRichmond.com.