The Trenton Thunder (32-27) snapped the Richmond Flying Squirrels (30-25) six-game win-streak with an, 8-3, victory on Tuesday night at The Diamond. Richmond was attempting to equal the franchise record for consecutive wins (seven – 2010), but continued to struggle against Trenton. The Thunder are now 6-2 against the Squirrels on the season.
Rob Refsnyder crunched a solo-home run off of lefty Adalberto Mejia with one out in the second inning. His sixth of the year banked off the scoreboard and was the beginning of the end for Mejia. Yeral Sanchez followed with a double into the right-field corner and Mejia then walked Dan Fiorito. Ali Castillo singled to load the bases and Mason Williams then drove in a pair with a single to center field. Ben Gamel followed and knocked in Castillo with a single looped into right-center field. Tyler Austin capped the inning with a sacrifice-fly to right field for a 5-0 lead.
Mejia (2-5) didn’t survive the second inning, leaving to the loss after 1 2/3 innings. It marked his second shortest outing of the season as he was saddled with his fifth loss of the year. He was charged with five earned runs on six hits, walked one and struck out one.
Right-hander Edwin Quirarte cleaned up the second inning for Mejia, but ran into his own issues in the third. Pete O’Brien led off the inning with a double to the corner in left. An out later, Quirarte walked Sanchez and Fiorito back-to-back to load the bases. Castillo popped out, but Williams notched his third hit of the night – a single to center field – to plate another pair. Trenton went ahead, 7-0, with Williams having knocked in four of those runs.
Quirarte surrendered an additional run in the fourth inning as the Thunder claimed an 8-0 lead. Austin sparked the inning with a single and Gary Sanchez followed with a double to the left-field corner. An out later, Refsnyder knocked in Austin with a fielder’s choice groundout.
Trenton lefty Manny Banuelos made the start and worked two scoreless innings. Working back from an elbow injury, he retired after those two innings and was ineligible for the victory.
The victory instead went to left-hander Eric Wooten (2-0). He worked six brisk innings in relief, allowing just a lone run. That run scored in the seventh inning when Myles Schroder doubled home Tyler LaTorre.
Schroder also had a hand in the Squirrels other run-scoring inning, the ninth. He cracked a single, his third hit of the night, to bring in Angel Villalona. Richmond got two in the inning against lefty James Pazos. Kelby Tomlinson knocked in the other with a single.
Game two of the three-game series is scheduled for 6:35 p.m. at The Diamond on Wednesday night. Richmond LHP Ty Blach (3-3, 2.77) will make the start against Trenton RHP Bryan Mitchell (1-3, 4.35). The Flying Squirrels Pregame Warmup begins at 6:05 p.m. on Sports Radio 910 and SportsRadio910.com.
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