In Trenton’s 14 year history, no team has ever made it to the
championship series. However, with the way the players carried
themselves in the game Tuesday night, it seemed like it was a yearly
occurrence. [TRENTON, NJ] Three Trenton Thunder pitchers combined to allow only three runs and seven hits to an Akron Aeros offense that came into the postseason first in the Eastern League in hitting, and the Thunder came away with the victory 5-3. Trenton came into the postseason first in the Eastern League in E.R.A. Therefore, it was a match-up of the best hitting team versus the best pitching team, and as the saying goes, “good pitching will always beat good hitting.” Well, good pitching certainly won tonight, and if Trenton continues that trend, they will come away with their first championship in their history. Although Trenton’s pitching was good, it was also their timely hitting in this game that gave them the victory.
The Thunder came into this series entering uncharted waters. In Trenton’s 14 year history, no team has ever made it to the championship series. However, with the way the players carried themselves in the game Tuesday night, it seemed like it was a yearly occurrence. Tyler Clippard, the starting pitcher for the Thunder, pitched well, but got off to a little bit of a shaky start. Clippard started the game by giving up a walk to Trevor Crowe of Akron who would eventually come around to score. Clippard also gave up two hits in the first inning, but he settle down after that, retiring nine of the next twelve hitters, giving up only one hit and no runs over three innings. Clippard’s final line looked like this: 5 innings pitched, 4 hits, 2 runs, (both earned), 4 walks, and five strikeouts.
Although Clippard pitched well, his counterpart, Adam Miller of Akron, (who was rated by Baseball America as the Cleveland Indians number one overall prospect), pitched even better. Miller had a perfect game going through 2 2/3 innings until second basemen Gabriel Lopez of Trenton broke it up with a single up the middle. “I had faced Adam Miller before in the past, (Lopez said), actually the past two years here, so I knew he was going to come right after some of us, and he did with his fastball. I wasn’t trying to do too much, I was just trying to stay inside the ball and put a good swing on it.”
Lopez got on base with two outs in the third, and he and Reegie Corona, (who also singled), came around to score on an odd single to right by Austin Jackson. “I thought it was just a routine fly ball,” Jackson said. “I guess (right fielder Stephen) Head just had bad judgment on it and he thought it was hit a little farther than it was, but when it fell in, I was excited for my team to be able to get those runs in.” Jackson’s two RBI single came at a crucial point in the game. Although it was still early, it gave Trenton a 2-1 lead in the third inning, and it broke up Miller’s scoreless game to that point.
Akron went on to tie the game up at 2 in the fifth inning, but Jackson and left fielder Colin Curtis made sure that the Aeros would not take the lead. In the bottom of the seventh inning, with two outs once again, Jackson knocked in Marcos Vechionacci with an RBI single, and then he came around to score on Curtis’s two out, two RBI double to left center field, which plated both Lopez and Jackson to give the Thunder a 5-2 lead; a lead they would not relinquish. “It was good because in my last at bat I had a chance to get an insurance run and I came through,” Curtis said. “So, it was a good feeling to get it and help the team that way.” It turns out the double by Curtis, which knocked in two runs, was the winning hit. First basemen Jordan Brown of Akron came up in the top of the eighth inning and hit a homerun to left field that would have tied the game up at 3 without Curtis’s hit.
With the exception of Brown’s homerun in the eighth inning, Trenton’s bullpen got the job done. Over a four inning span, the bullpen only had to face 15 batters to get the final 12 outs of the ballgame, and they allowed just one run. Steven Jackson (1-0) got the win, going 3 innings, giving up only 2 hits, 1 run (which was earned), and no walks, and he struck out three as well. Justin Pope got his second save of the postseason by pitching a scoreless ninth, giving up just one hit, no walks, and striking out one as well. Trenton amassed eight hits in the game with no errors, and Akron had seven hits with one error. While Trenton used just three pitchers to get the victory, Akron had to use six in the loss, which could prove costly in game number two.
Before the game, members of the U.S. Army walked with the American flag to home plate, and the crowd stood for a moment of silence in memory of the tragedy six years ago on September 11th, 2001. Coincidentally, the game started at 6:13 p.m. and ended at 9:11 p.m on Tuesday night. There were 3,029 people in attendance. The Trenton Thunder will face off against the Akron Aeros Wednesday night at Waterfront Park in Game #2 of the Championship Series. Chase Wright for Trenton will go up against Akron’s Chuck Lofgren at 6:05 p.m. Call the Thunder at 609-394-3300 for more information.
In Trenton’s 14 year history, no team has ever made it to the
championship series. However, with the way the players carried
themselves in the game Tuesday night, it seemed like it was a yearly
occurrence. 