South Jersey Baseball:
Thunder Tripped Up in 11 Innings, 4-3

Thursday, May 12, 2005

By Dan Loney
Trenton Thunder Director of Broadcasting

Carlos Leon delivered an RBI triple in the 11th Inning to help the Reading Phillies to a 4-3 win over Trenton in Eastern League play. The game was the longest of the season for both teams at 3 hours, 47 minutes.

Reading (15-19) jumped out to a 3-0 lead with a two-run homer by LF Ryan Fleming off Thunder starter Danny Borrell in the 3rd Inning. 1B Randy Ruiz added a solo homer in the 5th Inning, his 7th of the season. Borrell allowed three runs in 5 2/3 innings in his second start with Trenton.

After being held to one hit in the first six innings, the Thunder (17-18) started their rally in the 7th Inning with a two-run double by RF Bronson Sardinha off R-Phils starter Seung Hak Lee. They added the tying run in the 8th Inning thanks to an RBI single by CF Melky Cabrera off reliever Travis Minix.

The Thunder missed opportunites in extra innings as they had a leadoff triple by Kevin Thompson in the 10th Inning and failed to score. sardinha started the 11th Inning with a double and, again, Trenton failed to score.

In the top of the eleventh, Reading got an infield by 2B Brian Hitchcox to start the inning. After a sacrifice bunt, Leon tripled off Justin Pope into the right field corner for the go-ahead run. Pope (0-2) allowed one run in three innings of relief for the loss.

The win went to Yoel Hernandez, who worked 2 1/3 innings of scoreless relief. Ryan Cameron got the final out of the 11th Inning for his 4th save.

The Thunder start a series in Harrisburg, PA against the Senators on Friday at 6:05 PM. Matt Smith (1-2, 5.06) starts for Trenton against Harrisburg's Rich Rundles (1-3, 4.42)