Trenton Thunder News

(This story was written by Jack Kerwin of the Trentonian)

BINGHAMTON - Reality had set in long before the Thunder awakened at the team hotel on Tuesday.

Still exhausted after a grueling overnight bus ride which whisked them away under a cloak of darkness and fog from the picturesque, Norman Rockwell-type setting of Southern Maine to the grimy confines of this part of the Empire state, the players, coaches and manager for Trenton`s Double-A baseball franchise scratched their eyes and stretched their legs before ultimately rising and coming to one seemingly irrefutable conclusion about the season:

The playoffs are only a pipe dream now. It`s funny how the truth, even one as anticlimactic as that one, can be so liberating.

OK, so maybe it took an extra day for that thought to sink in, allowing the Binghamton Mets to extend their winning streak to a minor-league best 15 games. But with Trenton`s players free to focus on playing ball and not having to worry about checking the scoreboard anymore, the Thunder erupted against the Eastern League Northern Division front-runners Wednesday night.

Behind homers from Tony DeRosso, Rontrez Johnson, Damian Sapp and Marc Lewis, the Thunder blasted Juan Aracena and two other B-Mets pitchers to the tune of 10-5 before an overpowering electrical storm overtook Municipal Stadium in the top of the seventh with facility clock reading 8:44.

Following a two-hour, 56-minute delay, kept alive in large part by Binghamton general manager R.C. Reuterman`s strong-arm tactics with umpires Dave Riley, Greg Chittender and Bob Bainter, the B-Mets immediately rallied for four runs against reliever Terrance Hill to make things interesting. But the Thunder held on for an 11-9 victory as hard-throwing Marty McLeary tossed two scoreless frames to earn the save.

Nerio Rodriguez, who had received only 24 runs of support in his last 10 starts, picked up his first win since beating Norwich 6-5 in the opening game of a June 17 doubleheader at Waterfront Park. The right-hander went six innings and surrendered five runs.

That wasn`t a problem in this one. Sitting in fifth place, 11 and a half games in back of Binghamton before the opening pitch, Gardner`s charges went out and displayed the type of offensive firepower Trenton fans only could have hoped to have seen on a more regular basis this year.

Even before Johnson started the procession of home-run trots with a solo bomb, his sixth, in the top of the second, he had kickstarted the Thunder (55-60) with a single and stolen base just minutes into the game as Trenton jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first. A fielder`s choice by Jorge DeLeon plated Johnson before Virgil Chevalier walked and Shea Hillenbrand singled to put runners on second and third for DeRosso.

Just starting to get back in the groove with a pair of homers in Monday night`s 10-3 win at Portland, DeRosso drilled a two-run single to left in helping to set the tone in this one.

Johnson`s solo shot in the second gave Trenton a 4-0 advantage and placed Binghamton (64-48) in its first four-run hole since starting its magical winning streak back on July 22. The B-Mets countered with Ty Wigginton`s 15th homer of the year, a two-run job to left, to pull within 4-2 heading into the third.

But then the Thunder, completely unencumbered now, really pushed the pedal to the metal. DeRosso slammed his 18th homer of the year with two outs in the third and Sapp unloaded a two-run shot two batters later for a 7-2 Trenton lead. Jason Phillips knocked in Binghamton`s third run with a single in the fourth, but Lewis` opposite-field homer to lead off the sixth started another three-run Thunder rally.

Just what in the name of Juan Diaz was going on here?

“Our offense has shown some signs of snapping out of it,” said Gardner. “Rontrez has come around, Shea continues to hit, and Tony seems to have found his power stroke.”

With his latest longball, DeRosso overtook Diaz, the Cuban slugger who moved up to Triple-A Pawtucket last month only to have his season ended by a broken ankle, for the team lead in home runs. Now deferring to Hillenbrand at third base, DeRosso seems to have found himself a home at first.

“Tony`s got the type of bat, the type of home-run pop, that fits well into either corner position,” said Gardner.

Down 10-3 in the sixth, Wigginton delivered his second two-run blast of the night. He also singled in the B-Mets` four-run seventh, but Johnson singled and later scored an insurance run in the eighth to help seal the deal for Trenton.

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Author: Jack Kerwin