With the Draft League Championship game a mere two weeks away, the Trenton Thunder found themselves back in action at home as they started a three-game weekend set against the Frederick Keys on Friday night at Trenton Thunder Ballpark.
The pitching matchup would pit Virginia Tech southpaw Jonah Hurney against Houston Christian Academy right-hander Walker Zander.
After a scoreless opening inning, the Keys would get to Hurney thanks to a two-run single off the bat of Noah Martinez. That scored Roberto Pena and Trenton Jamison to get the Keys on the board first. The Keys would strike again in the top half of the third with a combination of a Zaid Walker double and an RBI single by Johnny Kampes.
However, the Trenton Thunder would strike back in the bottom of the third inning with an RBI triple by Ramon Jimenez to score Angel Mendoza to make it 3-1.
That was all Walker Zander would allow through six innings of work - one run on three hits, five strikeouts and three walks.
On the other side of the pitching matchup, Hurney would allow four runs (three earned) on seven hits, also punching out five and issuing three walks along the way in five and a third innings of work, leaving it up to the Trenton Thunder bullpen to hold back the Keys while the offense pulled them back.
Sure enough, the offense tried their hardest as they put up two in the home seventh inning. First, they made the Keys pay the price for walking Dan Covino as Max Giordano laced a line drive to left field to drive in Covino. Two batters later, Christian Merriwether would drive in Giordano off a deflected ground ball to shortstop to cut the deficit to 4-3.
The Thunder would then take the lead after a walk to Joe Impeduglia set the stage for an Anthony Fontana sacrifice grounder to score Jack Lynch as the go-ahead run to complete the comeback and turn a 4-1 deficit into a 5-4 Trenton Thunder advantage as the Keys would need two relievers - Kyle Greenler and Kyle Salley - to get out of the bottom of the seventh.
However, the lead was short-lived as the Keys would retake the lead with a pair of runs off Thunder reliever Tommy Benincaso to make it a 6-5 Keys advantage.
The Trenton Thunder would get the tying run on base in the late innings, but poor baserunning decisions would cause them to come up empty as not even a Joe Impeduglia two-run double in the ninth inning would help to stave off a 8-7 series-opening loss.
The Road Ahead
The Trenton Thunder will continue their series against the Keys Saturday night right back at Trenton Thunder Ballpark. First pitch is set for 6:30 p.m.
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