Richmond continues to baffle Thunder
TRENTON » How does a team 29 games behind them in the standings seem to have the Thunder’s number?
Well, the Richmond Flying Squirrels are the Thunder’s bogey team.
In fact, the last-place team in the Eastern League West Division is the only one with a winning record against Trenton this season.
Nate Reed shut the Thunder down for seven innings, K.C. Hobson homered and Richmond beat Trenton for the fifth time in eight games with a 5-1 victory on Thursday night at Arm & Hammer Park.
Reed, making his seventh DoubleA start, had an 8.68 ERA, but danced around a bases-loaded jam with one out in the third to thwart the Thunder’s one real scoring chance against him.
The left-hander struck out Thairo Estrada then got Mike Ford to ground to first on a 3-2 pitch.
Reed held Trenton (85-44) to four hits and struck out five.
Richmond (56-73) took the lead against Thunder starter Daniel Camarena on a bizarre play in the second inning when Hobson hit a ball that ricochetted off the first base bag and into the Thunder dugout for an RBI double.
The visitors tacked on two more in the third — the first of which came when catcher Francisco Diaz dropped the ball trying to apply a tag at the plate. Jerry Sands added an RBI double one batter later.
Camarena took the loss, allowing four runs (three earned) on seven hits. The left-hander struck out four and walked one.
Hobson cranked his fourth homer off reliever Anyelo Gomez in the eighth.
Sands finished with two doubles and a pair of RBIs.
The Thunder scored in the eighth after Nick Solak lead off with a double and touched home on Ford’s ground out.
The Hopewell Post 339 baseball team that reached the American Legion World Series was honored before the game.
Post 339 won the New Jersey state and Mid-Atlantic Regional tournaments to advance to the World Series in Shelby, N.C., where it went 1-2.
Assistant coach Allyson Coryell threw out one of the ceremonial first pitches.