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Photo Credit: Dave Janosz

Trenton Thunder Continues Amazing Start to 2023 in Win vs. Scrappers

June 22, 2023

With the seasons changing from spring to summer, the Trenton Thunder marked the start of the longest season of the astronomical year by continuing to surge through the 2023 MLB Draft League season in game 2 of their three-game set against the Mahoning Valley Scrappers. They beat the Scrappers 3-0 in front of a packed home crowd at Trenton Thunder Ballpark Wednesday night.

Ryan Birchard, the right-handed flamethrower from Niagara County Community College, would get the start and was dominant early on, garnering five strikeouts in three innings of work for the Trenton Thunder. The Thunder offense would break through in the bottom of the third inning courtesy of a double off the bat of Rutgers product Evan Sleight that drove home Davidson's Jacob Hinderleider and to give the Thunder the early 1-0 lead.

After Birchard got pulled, UPenn's hard-throwing righty Eli Trop would take over, continuing to hold the Scrappers hitless in an inning and a third out of the Trenton Thunder bullpen, but was pulled after back-to-back hit batsmen, leaving South Carolina right-hander Brett Thomas to clean up with a strikeout and a groundout to end the 5th inning threat by the Scrappers. The Thunder offense would tack on to their lead with a two-run double off the bat of the second of the three Rutgers prospects on the Thunder roster in Chris Brito to make it a 3-0 Trenton Thunder advantage.

Despite losing the no-hitter in the 6th of a Colton Coates grounder to centerfield, those three runs were all the Trenton Thunder needed as the rest of the Thunder bullpen was strong - allowing no runs on two hits in four innings of work to completely shut the door on the Scrappers. The win pushed the Thunder's record to 11-6 on the season with 13 games left in the 1st half of the season leading into the Prospects Game in Trenton over July 4th weekend.

The Road Ahead

The Thunder will wrap up their series against the Mahoning Valley Scrappers Thursday night at Trenton Thunder Ballpark. First pitch is set for 7 PM. After that, they'll start a three-game weekend series against the Williamsport Crosscutters.