Herd Ride Seesaw to 10-9 Victory

(Trenton, NJ) – Bryan Baker *provided the 3,754 fans at Trenton Thunder Ballpark with the full white knuckle treatment in the ninth inning in game two between the Bisons and IronPigs. After surrendering two runs to get the visitors within a run, the Herd closer only had one out with runners at the corners. But he battled back to strike out the next two hitters and preserve a come-from-behind 10-9 win as Buffalo (29-19) won for the 12th time in their last 14 games. Eight of the nine in the lineup finished with a hit while all nine scored, and home runs from *Christian Colon, Logan Warmoth, and *Kevin Smith *held up in a big way as they improved to 10 games over .500 for the first time this season.

In a matchup between Major League rehabbing starters, *Thomas Hatch *and *Chase Anderson *traded zeroes for the first two innings. In the third, the IronPigs scored first for the second straight night when they loaded the bases on a double, a walk, and an error. With one away, *Didi Gregorius *poked a grounder by second baseman *Richard Urena *for an error that brought in the first two runs of the ballgame.

Wednesday night’s originally scheduled IronPigs starter, Ramon Rosso, put Urena on to start the home third. Breyvic Valera’s *single allowed *Alejandro Kirk *to get the Herd their first run with a sacrifice fly just before *Rowdy Tellez *tied the game with a two-out single. Following a four pitch walk to Smith, Colon crushed the first pitch he saw deep to left for his eighth home run and a 5-2 lead. The ‘Pigs answered back on a *Darick Hall *solo homer in the fourth inning to cut the lead to 5-3, and Buffalo later made it a 6-3 score on a Smith sacrifice fly in the fifth inning off *Bryan Mitchell.

In the sixth, the IronPigs knocked Hatch out of his longest start since the end of the 2019 season on a Mickey Moniak *leadoff single and the second walk by *Ruben Tejada. Coming in from the Bisons bullpen, *Hobie Harris *fanned Hall and *Ryan Cordell *struck an RBI double to push the tying runs into scoring position. *Rafael Marchan’s *groundout made it a one-run game, and consecutive doubles from *Dalton Guthrie *and *Charlie Tilson *gave the visitors their second lead at 7-6.

Facing *Mauricio Llovera *in the sixth, *Tyler White *and *Cullen Large *opened the inning with singles to place the tying and go-ahead runs on base. Two batters later, Warmoth cranked his fifth home run to left to extend his hitting streak to nine straight games and put the Herd back ahead 9-7. Smith’s second home run in as many nights opened the seventh inning as he connected with the scoreboard in left-center and kept the game at 10-7 before the tense top of the ninth.

*Thomas Milone’s *rehab assignment for Buffalo started with two perfect innings in the seventh and eighth, leaving Baker with a three-run cushion as the IronPigs came up for their last cracks. After Guthrie struck out to start the ninth, Tilson singled and then scored on *Matt Vierling’s *triple to right-center. Gregorius sent a comebacker to the mound and was safe when Baker’s high throw pulled Tellez off the bag. A broken bat single from Moniakmade it 10-9 and put runners at the corners, but Baker whiffed Tejada and Hall to preserve his sixth save and end the comeback.

The Bisons will look to make it three straight wins against the IronPigs on Thursday, July 1 at 7:00 PM at Trenton Thunder Ballpark. To purchase tickets for Thirsty Thursday, call (609)-394-3300, Opt 4 or visit trentonthunder.com.

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New Jersey's Baseball Team | Founding Member of the MLB Draft League

The Trenton Thunder have drawn over 10 million fans over 28 years and have won the three major awards that Minor League Baseball teams can win; the Johnson Trophy for the "Nation's Best Franchise" (2005), the Larry MacPhail Trophy for Outstanding Club Promotion (2003) and the Bob Frietas Award for Long-Term Success (1998, given by Baseball America). The team has given back over $7.5 million worth of goods, services, and monetary donations through Trenton Thunder Charities, under the Grand Slam We Care Foundation umbrella. The Thunder can be found online at trentonthunder.com, facebook.com/trentonthunder, twitter.com/trentonthunder, and on youtube.com/AATrentonThunder.