PORTLAND, ME – A second-straight walk-off loss at the hands of the Portland Sea Dogs pushes the Thunder losing streak to five games, as a wild pitch got to the backstop to bring home the deciding run in Portland’s ten-inning 3-2 victory.
After falling behind 2-0 early in the ballgame, the Thunder rallied to tie the game in the top of the 6th inning with a pair of runs. Against Portland starter Justin Haley, who allowed just one hit through the first five innings of the game, Cito Culver struck out but reached base on a wild pitch. The next batter was Rico Noel and he snuck a base hit through the right side to put runners at first and second base. Jake Cave followed with an RBI single which moved Noel to third base, putting him in position to score on an Ali Castillo game-tying sacrifice fly.
Thunder starting pitcher Kyle Haynes did not factor in the decision with five innings of two-run ball. Over that time, he was touched for six hits and two walks while striking out four. The first man out of the bullpen was Matt Tracy who spanned the final four innings of regulation baseball by facing the minimum 12 batters before handing the ball off to Mark Montgomery.
After a scoreless top of the 10th inning, the Thunder turned to their closer in a non-save situation. The very first batter of the inning, Tzu-Wei Lin tripled to right-centerfield, but Montgomery mixed a couple of harmless groundouts with a walk to put runners at first and third with two outs. On an 0-2 pitch to Sam Travis, the ball got away to the backstop and gave Portland a walk-off win.
The Trenton Thunder battle in the series-finale with the Portland Sea Dogs Wednesday afternoon. It is the final game of the season at Hadlock Field and is scheduled for a 12:00 p.m. first pitch with pre-game coverage beginning at 11:45 a.m. on 91.3 FM and online at www.trentonthunder.com.
