South Jersey Baseball:
Thunder Hit 4 HRs, Beat Portland 7-1

Thursday, June 23, 2005

By Dan Loney
Trenton Thunder Director of Broadcasting

Trenton slammed four home runs, three off starter Chris Smith, en route to a 7-1 win over Portland on Thursday night in Eastern league play. With the win, Trenton finishes their road trip with a 5-2 record and is again just 1/2 game out of 1st Place in the Northern Division.

Trenton (40-33) got the offense going early against Smith. The first two batters of the 1st Inning reached base and then, two batters later, Eric Duncan collected his 9th homer of the year for a 3-0 lead. Trenton then led off the next two innings with solo homers, by Jason Brown and Melky Cabrera respectively, for a 5-0 lead. Smith (3-3) was charged with five runs on four hits in four innings.

The Thunder capped off their scoring in the 5th Inning against Sea Dogs reliever Charlie Zink. After Cabrera walked, Shelley Duncan launched his 19th homer for a 7-0 lead.

Thunder starter Jeff Karstens got out of a 1st Inning jam and then cruised through seven innings for the win. The only run for Portland (38-31) came in the 6th Inning as Raul Nieves scored on a passed ball by Brown. Karstens (7-6) allowed one run on four hits with four walks and six strikeouts. It was his first win since May 21st.

The Thunder return home to begin a weekend series with the Reading Phillies on friday at 7:05 PM. Charlie Isaacson (3-2, 3.27) starts for the Thunder against Reading's Carlos Chantres (2-8, 5.76)