TRENTON- After three days of almost everything going in their favor, not much went right for the Thunder Sunday. Trenton (10-7) was trying for a four-game sweep of Akron (11-6), but had to settle for taking three out of four, as the RubberDucks took a 5-0 victory to close out the set. The Thunder host New Hampshire Monday night,...
TRENTON- After three days of almost everything going in their favor, not much went right for the Thunder Sunday.
Trenton (10-7) was trying for a four-game sweep of Akron (11-6), but had to settle for taking three out of four, as the RubberDucks took a 5-0 victory to close out the set.
The Thunder host New Hampshire Monday night, in the first of three, before Trenton heads out on the road Thursday.
RubberDuck starter Shawn Morimando (4-0) was lights out, allowing just one hit in his 5.2 innings of work, and lowered his season ERA to 1.57.
"He pitched really well, you have to give him credit," Thunder manager Bobby Mitchell said. "He pitched really well. He was able to spot his fast ball a lot. He stayed with his fastball, really early, a lot. I don't know if that was part of his plan, to not show his curveball until the third or fourth inning."
"He has decent command today, and hit his spots in and out," Mitchell said. "He made it tough. I have to give hime a lot of credit. He is a good pitcher."
Trenton starter Brady Lail went four plus innings, and gave up five runs on eight hits. The big blow for the Duckies came off the bat of Nellie Rodriguez, in the form of a three-run blast in the top of the fifth inning.
"They are a good team," Mitchell said. "They came out more relaxed, and swung the bats well. There were just a couple of mistakes that Brady made, that they didn't miss. A hanging curveball for a double in the left-centerfield gap, and then the homer."
"He struggled some with his command, so he was falling behind a little bit," Mitchell said. "I think that actually led to them becoming more confident in their at-bats. In the previous three days, we were mostly working ahead."
Even with the loss, Mitchell's postgame talk to his charges was upbeat.
"I told the guys 'It was an awesome series for us'," Mitchell said. "It is hard to sweep guys, especially four games. They were all taking it pretty hard, the loss. But if you win three out of four from teams, we are going to do pretty well during the season."
"I think they are over it now," Mitchell said. "It is just the competitiveness that they have, and the character they have. They never like to lose. We all don't like to lose, but sometimes, you have to give the other team credit. They did a good job."
MONTGOMERY JOINS THE THUNDER PITCHING PARTY
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With Rodriguez's family in town for the weekend from New York City, the big designated hitter out of George Washington High School made up for a slow start to the series Sunday. He was a triple short of the cycle, and drove in four of the Duckies five runs.
Rodriguez, who grew up in the shadow of Yankee Stadium, was a fan of the Bronx team in his formative years.
"Yeah, growing up, I was a Yankees fan," Rodriguez said. "Today, just getting to see my family, and put on a good showing for them out here was nice. I haven't seen them in three or four months."
After the first three games of the series, during which the Thunder pitchers held the Akron bats silent, it was key for Rodriguez to break out Sunday to help avoid the sweep.
"We just need to slow everything down, and just have good at-bats," Rodriguez said. "We have to put good swings on balls. We just have to slow everything down, look for good pitches to hit, and not be too anxious."
His high school has such notable alumni as Henry Kissinger, Alan Greenspan, and Henry Belafonte. There are also two Major League Baseball players that have come out of the campus; Rod Carew and Manny Ramirez.
So it was obvious on which player, when Rodriguez was growing up, he modeled his game.
"Manny Ramirez, because I went to the same high school as him," Rodriguez said. "And Albert Pujols. Those were my two favorite players."