A battle between two in-state rivals had the Sussex County Miners in town to take on the New Jersey Jackals in game one of three from Yogi Berra Stadium.

In the top of the first, the Miners struck on an Alexi Colon RBI double to score Adron Chambers and a sacrifice fly by Rubi Silva scored Colon to make it 2-0. 

The lead was short lived, as in the bottom of the inning, first baseman Conrad Gregor connected for his seventh homer of the season, a three run shot that scored right fielder Johnny Bladel and short stop Rylan Sandoval, making the game 3-2.

After a stolen base by Bladel to put him in scoring position, second baseman Brian Burgamy promptly drove him in with an RBI single, giving New Jersey a two run lead at 4-2. Burgamy celebrated his birthday with his 37th RBI of the season.

Jared Mederos tied the game up off of starter David Richardson in the top of the fourth with a two run single scoring Jay Baum and Justin Trapp.

Later, Mederos scored following a groundout by Colon to make the game 5-4, Miners.

Designated hitter Brian Joynt lined a huge two run single in the bottom of the frame to once again wash away the Miners lead, as Sandoval and Gregor came into score to give New Jersey the 6-5 edge.

The Jackals, searching for more runs in the 8th, got a big insurance lift on a solo home run by catcher Adam Martin, his second of the year to make the game 7-5.

Closer Johnny Hellweg entered the game in the 9th, and made the final inning interesting.

After loading the bases on two singles and a hit by pitch, Hellweg induced a comeback hit in front of the mound, and he raced toward the plate, flipping it to Martin at home in time for the first out.

Then, Hellweg struck out back-to-back hitters to slam the door for his 11th save of the season, as the Jackals extend their wining streak to 5 games with the 7-5 victory.

Notes:

Center fielder D'Vontrey Richardson collected a base in his 13th consecutive game, but left the game in the 5th due to an injury. 

Game two is set for Tuesday, June 28th at 7:05 as the Jackals send veteran lefty Issac Pavlik to the mound. 

All home games can be watched on canamleague.tv and all games can be heard live on mixlr.com/jackalsbaseball

---Alex Cammarata