Mesa Homers Again As Trenton Sweeps Erie
Mesa's blast off of Erie starter Zack Segovia (0-2) came with two outs in the top of the first scoring Ronnier Mustelier and Cody Johnson in front of him. It was his team-high-tying fourth long ball of the season (third in the last five games) and the Thunder's Eastern-League best 18th home run.
Trenton starter Cory Arbiso kept the 3-0 lead until he allowed an RBI groundout by Niuman Romero in the bottom of the fifth and was pulled in favor of Ryan Pope. Pope (1-2) then struck out Tony Plagman to end the inning with a runner on second base.
The Thunder batted around and scored four times against Segovia and reliever Jared Gayhart in the sixth. Jose Gil's RBI single made it a 4-1 game and chased Segovia, who was charged with five runs and eight hits in five plus innings.
Gayhart then walked Abraham Almonte with the bases loaded and threw a wild pitch with Mustelier batting to make the score 6-1 Trenton. Zoilo Almonte completed the scoring one batter later by driving in a run on a fielder's choice ground out.
Pope threw 2.1 scoreless innings to earn his first victory of the season, while Kelvin Perez finished the victory with two scoreless frames. Abraham Almonte and Mustelier each had a pair of knocks for the Thunder to pace the nine-hit attack.
Trenton returns to Waterfront Park for the next seven games beginning Thursday night with the opener of a four-game series against Harrisburg. Thunder left-hander Josh Romanski (1-0) is expected to pitch against Senators southpaw Mike Ballard (0-1) with first pitch is scheduled for 7:05 pm. Limited tickets are available by contacting the Thunder box office at 609-394-3300 or online at www.trentonthunder.com.