Crosscutters shut down Scrappers’ O

Mahoning Valley had a chance to win it in the ninth but came up short.

By BILL ALBRIGHT

VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT

WILLIAMSPORT — On the heels of a dramatic win the night before, Mahoning Valley simply never got things going as they dropped a 2-0 verdict to the Williamsport Crosscutters at Bowman Field Friday night.

“Their starting pitcher did an outstanding job against us and their defense really hurt us,” said Scrapper manager Tim Laker. “It was a well played game and tonight, we just came out on the short end of the final score.”

The ’Cutters scored a run in each of the first two innings for a quick 2-0 lead.

Williamsport manufactured its run in the first when Dominic Brown led off with a single and two outs later scored on a RBI single by Michael Taylor.

In the second, the ’Cutters took a more direct route in pushing their lead to 2-0 as Tim Kennelly picked on the second pitch from Kelvin De La Cruz and deposited it over the left fence for a solo home run.

Good pitching

Although he was tagged with the tough loss, De La Cruz was solid on the mound. The only problem was that Cutter lefty Jacob Diekman was a little better.

For the game, De La Cruz left after five innings, having allowed two earned runs on four hits, walking a pair and striking out a half dozen.

“Although he was a little rough early, I thought that he [De La Cruz] pitched well,” said Laker. “When he gave up that home run, I think it was a wakeup call for him and he seemed to turn it up a notch. He was real good those last couple of innings.”

While the Cutter bats went silent for a while, their defense didn’t as they pulled off double plays in the fourth, fifth and seventh innings and nearly had a fourth in the sixth frame. In each of those innings, the Mahoning Valley leadoff hitter reached.

“Every time we got a guy on, it seemed as though they rolled up a double play,” said Laker. “As they say, that is the pitcher’s best friend and tonight, that was the case for them. The double plays really hurt because instead of having that guy out and bothering their pitcher for the rest of the inning, just that quickly they have two outs.”

The Scrappers didn’t exactly go quietly in the ninth as when Jansy Infante led off with a walk and one out later, Matt Brown singled to right.

However, that was when Jarrod Freeman took matters into his own hands as he fanned pinch-hitter Osial Flores before getting the final out on a fly ball to right field.

———

SCRAPPERSWILLIAMSPORT

abrhbiabrhbi

White cf3000Brown cf3110

Thompson ss4010Mitchell dh4000

Infante 3b2000Mach 2b2000

Nash 1b3010Taylor lf3011

M. Brown rf3010Spencer rf3000

Castillo c2000Kennelly c3121

Flores ph1000Durant 1b3010

Petrucci lf4010Morales 3b2000

Valadez dh3000Cuevas ss3010

Hehr 2b3000

Totals28040Totals26262

Scrappers000000000—0

Williamsport11000000x—2

E—Mach (10). DP—Williamsport 3. LOB—Scrappers 7, Williamsport 4. 2B—Thompson (7), Kennelly (6). HR—Kennelly (2). SB—Brown (11). CS—Cuevas (3), Mach (2), Kennelly (1).

IPHRERBBSO

Scrappers

De La Cruz L, 2-3542226

Delage220012

Landis100001

Williamsport

Diekman W, 2-05 2-320033

Freeman S, 13 1-320014

HBP—by Diekman (White), by Freeman (Castillo). Umpires—Home, Ross Nickel; Bases, Justin Sassaman. T—2:35. A—1,656.

HOW THEY SCORED

Williamsport 1st — Dominic Brown singles on a ground ball to center fielder Adam White. Derrick Mitchell grounds out, pitcher Kelvin De La Cruz to first baseman Chris Nash. Dominic Brown to 2nd. Tyler Mach grounds out, shortstop Mark Thompson to first baseman Chris Nash. Dominic Brown to 3rd. Michael Taylor singles on a line drive to center fielder Adam White. Dominic Brown scores. Matthew Spencer grounds out, second baseman Jeffrey Hehr to first baseman Chris Nash. 1 run, 2 hits, 0 errors, 1 LOB

Williamsport 2nd — Timothy Kennelly homers on a fly ball to left field. Michael Durant strikes out swinging. Jaime Morales strikes out swinging. Phillip Cuevas strikes out swinging, catcher Alex Castillo to first baseman Chris Nash. 1 run, 1 hit, 0 errors, 0 LOB