Laird Homers Again In Thunder Win

(PR) Binghamton, NY- A late home run by Austin Krum pushed the Thunder ahead of Binghamton, and Trenton held on for a 4-3 victory over the Mets on Sunday at NYSEG Stadium. With the win, the Thunder improve to 41-26 on the year.

Binghamton scored early against RHP David Phelps, as Luis Hernandez hit a bloop-single to lead off the game. He would later be driven in on a Nick Evans groundout to make it 1-0 Binghamton. In the top of the second inning, Brandon Laird tied the game at one with a solo home run to center field.

Sean Ratliff’s solo home run to right field off Phelps in the third inning put Binghamton back in front 2-1. In the fourth, Mike Nikeas drove in Eric Campbell to push the B-Mets lead to 3-1 at the end of four innings. Trenton started the fifth inning off LHP Mike Antonini with three straight hits, the third being an RBI single by Luis Nunez to cut the B-Mets lead 3-2.

Phelps left the game after allowing three runs on five hits and striking out ten in six innings of work. RHP Tim Norton (1-0) pitched the next two innings in relief and struck out four, while allowing only one hit.

With one out and a runner on base in the top of the eighth inning, Krum connected on a two-run homer to right field off LHP Derek Ellison (1-2) to give the Thunder their first lead of the series, 4-3.

RHP Grant Duff worked around trouble in the bottom of the ninth to pick up his seventh save of the year. With the tying run in scoring position, Duff induced a fly out by Hernandez to end the game.

Trenton next travels to Erie and will open up a series with the SeaWolves on Tuesday night at 6:00 PM. The two teams will resume play from a game suspended by rain on May 27, and then play the regularly scheduled game immediately after. LHP Wilkin de la Rosa takes the ball in the resumption game, while Erie goes with RHP Brooks Brown. In the second game, RHP Lance Pendleton toes the rubber for the Thunder, and Erie counters with RHP Thad Weber.

4 Responses to “Laird Homers Again In Thunder Win”

  1. walter Says:

    Nice report. Any word on what Norton and Duff have been hitting on the gun?

  2. Ebyanks Says:

    Mike, You have said that Phelps doesn’t throw hard and is a back of the rotation command guy. What does his FB sit at?? Meaning he gets up to ? on FB, but most FB’s are at__?

  3. thunderbaseball Says:

    I will look at velos on Duff and Norton…Duff is usually 95ish…have only seen Norton once and didn’t get a reading.

    Phelps is usually 89-93…sits 91-92. I don’t recally saying he was a back of the rotation command guy, perhaps I did…but I do think he projects to be a big leaguer. Hard to complain about anything he’s doing right now.

  4. mbn007 Says:

    Laird is at 16 HRs now. His career high was 23. He has about a 1/2 season to top that. I wonder if he gets a hot at AAA toward the end of 2010……….

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