Struggling pitching reason for loss

With the Skeeters desperate for a win, Derrick Gordon got the call for the Skeeters and Keith Weiser took the mound for the Riversharks. Both teams were coming off of road trips, although Camden's trip was much shorter, and the Riversharks were coming home after winning both games of a doubleheader.

Despite scoring 5 runs on 11 hits, the Skeeters could not overcome the hole the pitching staff dug for them. The Skeeters jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the 1st inning when Dominic Ramos, lead-off triple, and Bubba Bell, single, scored. That lead, however, was quickly given up when the Riversharks scored 3 runs on 4 hits in the bottom half of the 1 inning to take the lead 2-3. 

In the top of the 2nd inning, Dominic Ramos again tattooed the ball and with 2 outs, hit his 4th home run of the season to tie the game at 3-3. Gordon proceeded to give the lead back to Camden allowing another 3 runs, this time on just 2 hits in the bottom of the inning...score was 3-6 Camden lead.

The top of the 4th inning saw the Skeeters put 2 runs on the board with Matt Hagen & Iggy Suarez scoring to pull to within 1 run at 5-6. The Skeeters went scoreless for the remainder of the game but in the bottom of the 5th inning, Gordon gave up a 1-run home run to Brian Burgamy, his 2nd of the game, to stretch the lead to 5-7 after 5 innings.

The Camden Riversharks put the game out of reach in the 8th inning by scoring 5 runs on 6 hits...luckily leaving 3 runners on base. All 5 runs came with 2 outs...with 4 of the runs coming on a Marquez Smith Grand Slam off Kelvin Villa. 

The final score was 5-12...Camden wins.

The Skeeters used just 3 pitchers in the game but 2 of them absolutely cost the game. Derrick Gordon and Kelvin Villa combined for 6 innings pitched, allowed 12 runs on 14 hits. They also combined for 5 walks and only 3 strike outs. The bright spot in the rotation was Sean Morgan, who at one point was released by the team and then resigned. Morgan went 2 innings, allowed 0 runs, walked just 1 batter and struck out 3.

The loss pushes the season record to 18-28, now 10.5 games out of 1st place and 3.5 games out of 3rd place, behind Somerset.

Hitting Streaks:

Octavio Martinez (5)

Ofilio Castro (3)

Bubba Bell (2)

Dominic Ramos (2)

Home Runs:

Dominic Ramos (4)

The 2nd game of the 4-game series is scheduled to start at 6:05pm Friday night.