As is custom during the dog days of summer, the Trenton Thunder welcomed the kids of summer camps across New Jersey and Pennsylvania for their Day Camp game Wednesday afternoon at Trenton Thunder Ballpark as they played Game 2 of their series against the State College Spikes, looking to rebound after a 14-3 drubbing on Tuesday night.
This time, the pitching matchup was a battle of Big Ten vs. Big East. The Spikes would send out Ohio State's hard-throwing righty Jonah Jenkins while the Thunder would send up a local product - Seton Hall's right-handed standout pitcher Nick Payero.
After a 40-minute rain delay, the home crowd had hopes that their Trenton Thunder would pull out a rebound performance for the children. Unlike Tuesday's game, the Thunder defense shut down the Spikes in the opening frame despite a line drive single and a fielding error.
Unfortunately, things would start off as planned for the Thunder or the home crowd as the Spikes would break through in the fourth inning starting with a Ryan Guardino double and stolen base. Guardino would then be driven in off a sac fly to right field off the bat of Carlos Contreras to open the scoring. The Spikes would tack on two more in the top of the sixth.
Trenton would finally get on the board in the home seventh inning with a pair of hits and a passed ball that scored Ramon Jimenez. Ernie Geraci would lift a single to center field to score Max Giordano from second base to draw the Thunder to within 3-2, chasing Justin Miller from the game. But that's as close as the Thunder would get as Spikes reliever Ty Pohlmann would get Joe Impeduglia to ground out to short to end the Thunder's rally.
Payero was strong on the mound for the Trenton Thunder as he pitched five solid innings, allowing a run on three hits and striking out two. However, Jonah Jenkins was just better for the Spikes. He pitched 5 1/3 innings himself, shutting down the Thunder on the scoreboard on two hits, striking out eight and walking only one before handing things off to the bullpen to finish the job.
The Thunder would get the tying run on base with a Dan Covino infield single in the home ninth, but pinch-hitter Anthony Abbantine would fly out to left field to end the game.
The Road Ahead for the Trenton Thunder
Trenton will look to salvage the series with the State College Spikes on Thursday night at Trenton Thunder Ballpark. First pitch is set for 7 p.m.. Afterwards, they'll head to Ohio for a three-game weekend series against the Mahoning Valley Scrappers before returning home Tuesday for a six-game homestand against the Frederick Keys and the Williamsport Crosscutters.
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