Despite late surge. Defenders fall
Published on August 4, 2008 under Eastern League (EL1)
Connecticut Defenders News Release
NORWICH, CT- The Defenders lost a hard-fought battle in front of a boisterous crowd on Monday night to the Trenton Thunder by a final of 9-6.
Daryl Maday toed the rubber for Connecticut as he made his second start at the Double-A level. From the jump, Maday struggled as Trenton touched him up for nine runs in just over three innings of work.
The onslaught began in the first frame where Ramiro Pena drew a one-out walk. Austin Jackson doubled Pena home, Chris Malec reached on an infield single and Colin Curtis erupted at the dish as he blasted a three-run homer to left to give the Thunder a 4-0 lead.
Trenton continued their assault in the third inning as Jackson slapped a double to the left-center gap. Malec walked, Kevin Russo laced a run scoring single to left, and Cody Ehlers smacked an RBI single to right to culminate the three-run rally. At the middle of three, Trenton was ahead 7-0.
The fourth inning was more of the same. The Thunder touched Maday for two more as Malec's triple plated Jackson and Malec came home on a sac fly off the stick of Curtis to give Trenton a seemingly insurmountable 9-0 advantage.
Connecticut would begin their claw back in the last of the fourth as Carlos Sosa delivered an RBI groundout to score Kyle Haines from third to make it a more respectable 9-1.
The bats continued to flourish in the sixth as Adam Witter slashed a two-run single to right field to bring Sosa home with Sandoval closely following as the lead diminished to 9-3.
The Defs put together another big inning in the seven as Simon Klink walked, Dave Maroul got aboard on an infield single and Antoan Richardson was struck by an 0-1 fastball. Haines then drew a bases loaded walk, Ryan Rohlinger lifted a sac fly to right to bring a run home and finally Sosa followed suit with a sacrifice flyball of his own. After seven, the lead was a much more uncomfortable 9-6.
The Defenders halted their comeback in the seventh as the bats could never re-heat to their previous temperature. On the other side of things, Adam Cowart and Jason Waddell kept the Thunder at nineruns to give the offense an opportunity to complete the comeback.
Daryl Maday lost his first game of the season, Thunder starter Eric Hacker collected his sixth win to improve to 6-2 and Jose Valdez nailed down save number three.
The Defenders and Thunder will continue their short three-game series on Tuesday at Dodd Stadium at 6:35pm. Tickets are still available for the contest at ctdefenders.com or by calling the box office at (860) 887-7962.
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