TRENTON- Maybe it was just not meant to be for the Thunder. Trenton came home from Akron in a 2-0 hole, looking to stay alive in the Eastern League Championship Series. The Thunder, who had won three games in a row eight times during the 2016 campaign, just needed to get one win Friday, to extend the series. But...
TRENTON- Maybe it was just not meant to be for the Thunder.
Trenton came home from Akron in a 2-0 hole, looking to stay alive in the Eastern League Championship Series. The Thunder, who had won three games in a row eight times during the 2016 campaign, just needed to get one win Friday, to extend the series.
But the dominant RubberDucks pitching, which had held Trenton to just five runs over the first 18 innings of the series, was even better on Friday night. Three Akron pitchers held the hosts to just four hits, and one run, as the RubberDucks completed the three-game sweep by the score of 2-1.
It was quite a feat for an Akron team that was 60-61 at one point in August, before going on a 27-6 tear, including the postseason, to hoist the banner as Eastern League champions for 2016.
Thunder manager Bobby Mitchell thought it boiled down to his squad's bats, which were silenced by a tough Akron pitching staff.
Thunder in a 2-game hole after loss in Akron
"We got cold," Mitchell said. "They held us to three, two and one runs. You can't win too many games like that, and in fact you are going to lose them. The pitching did a really good job tonight. We had a chance to tie it, but didn't take care of it. It would have been fun to see what would have happened if we tied it in the sixth inning.
We had a runner on third, and we just couldn't get the run in. That was kind of what we had run into the whole series. Not just this series, but prior to this.
I just told the guys that we had a great year. Everybody had a great year. Everybody did well."
Thunder get off to a tough start in Game 1 of EL Championship Series
Akron came into the championship on the back of a 3-1 West Division Series win over Altoona, and had given the Thunder fits all season, even after trading and promoting much of its team. The two teams have traded series sweeps all season, with just one set of games having both teams win a game. The RubberDucks came to ARM & HAMMER Park August 16-18 and took all three from Trenton, right as they started their fairytale run to the title.
"They are a good team," Mitchell said. "No doubt about it. Last series we played them, we didn't do very against them. They beat us six in a row, so that is pretty much dominating us."
Trenton came out of a tough East Division series with Reading, and many thought that the team with 87 regular season wins would be the favorite in the championship. But with the first two games on the road, a la the East Division series with the Fightin Phils, the Thunder could not muster a win in Akron, and could not climb out of the hole.
"Maybe over there there was a little lull," Mitchell said. "We tried to keep it from happening. We mentioned it. We knew they could beat us. We tried to keep that thinking from anybody. Akron was good enough to win its division, and make the playoffs."
The only good news on the night came from Scranton Wilkes-Barre, where the Triple A Yankees team shutout Gwinnett 3-0 behind Dan Camarena, to take the Governors' Cup Championship Series.
There were 15 players on the roster that played prominent roles for the Thunder this year. Tampa also made it to the Florida State League title round, before falling at the hands of Bradenton.
Contact Sean Miller at seanmillertrentontimes@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @TheProdigalSean