TRENTON — The first half of the MLB Draft League season got off to a good start in the capital city.
Holden Herring threw three solid inning and three relievers followed with six scoreless innings and the Thunder beat the league’s new member Aberdeen, 6-1, in the opener on Wednesday night at the renovated Trenton Thunder Ballpark.
The Thunder took the first lead of the contest in the bottom of the first when University of Houston product Cade Climie singled home Chase Swain for a 1-0 lead.
In the third, Aberdeen responded with a solo home run from first basemen Hollis Porter over the right field fence. After three solid innings on the mound from Herring, the Thunder bullpen recorded six innings of scoreless baseball with six strikeouts. David Hinojosa, Andrew Berg, and Nate Bennett combined allowed justone hit in relief.
In the bottom of the sixth, the Thunder took advantage of four walks in the inning to push across five runs. After consecutive walks to Brett Patten and Carsten Sabathia, and a hit by pitch to Cade Climie, Princeton University product Jake Koonin brought home the second run on a bases loaded walk. Second basemen Grant Gray came through with a two-RBI single the opposite way to score Sabathia and Climie for a 4-1 lead.
After a double steal from Koonin and Gray, Joek Rivera brought home the fifth run on a ground out to short. The Thunder scored their fifth run of the inning on a passed ball that scored Gray.