Early-season struggles continue for Scrappers

June 25, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

By PETE MOLLICA

NILES

Scrappers manager Travis Fryman will be the first to tell you that right now he couldn’t tell you the first names of every player on his roster.

“And I doubt most of the players on the team could tell you a lot of their teammates first names either,” said Fryman.

But Fryman is learning them quickly and he hopes his players will respond to their first shots at pro baseball with the same urgency.

Thursday night, Fryman watched his Scrappers (2-5) suffer their fourth straight defeat, 6-3 to the Batavia Muckdogs in the Pinckney Division of the New York-Penn League before 3,272 fans at Eastwood Field.

“Most of these kids have now played one week of professional baseball and it’s a whole new experience, but they are working very had and that’s the thing I really like about this group,” he added.

Offensively, the Scrappers are struggling, scoring just six runs in the last four games. They’ve allowed 31 runs over those same four games.

“There were some good things out there tonight,” Fryman said. “We’ve got some things we can take out of this game. The rest is just going to take some hard work to make better.”

The big blow that hurt the Scrappers came in the seventh with the contest tied 2-2.

The Muckdogs loaded the bases on two singles and a sacrifice that the Scrappers couldn’t turn into an out and then Nick Longmire cracked a grand slam over the right-field fence for the game breaker.

Mahoning Valley starting pitcher Kirk Wetmore went five innings and allowed two runs, both in the fourth when he gave up a double to Victory Sanchez and a triple to Jon Edwards, who later scored on a sacrifice fly.

The Scrappers tied the game in the fifth when Carlos Moncrief was hit by a pitch and Tyler Cannon followed with a single to left. Moises Montero then sacrificed the runners up a base and Aaron Fields doubled down the left field line plating both runners.

Fields had two of the Scrappers’ five hits on the night, both doubles. The 2010 draft pick out of Wright State was happy to have contributed.

“It always feels good when you can contribute to your team, but it still doesn’t take away the taste of defeat,” Fields said. “I knew they were trying to pitch me inside and I waited for my pitch and got a good piece of it.”

“Offensively we’re struggling a big, but what we need now is to just step back and relax a little big and get things rolling.”

The teams will meet in the second and final game of the series tonight at 7:05.

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BataviaMahoning Valley

abrhbiabrhbi

Longmir cf5124Casas cf4000

Valaika 2b4010Fontanez 2b4000

Ahmad 3b5010KInney 1b4000

Rodrig. 1b5010Burnette lf4110

Sanche dh4110Urshela 3b3010

Edwards rf4111Moncrief rf3100

Rosario lf4130Cannon cf4111

Perez c3111Montero c3000

Castillo ss3100Fields dh3022

Totals376116Totals32353

Batavia020200400—6

Mahoning Valley000020001—3

DP—Batavia 0, Scrappers 1. LOB—Batavia 7, Scrappers 5. 2B—Fields 2 (2), Sanchez (1). 3B—Edwards (1). HR—Longmire (1). E —Castillo (1).

IPHRERBBSO

Batavia

Siegrist532214

Rada W, 1-1300001

Butler121002

Scrappers

Wetmore542206

Reichenbac L, 0-1354401

Goryl120000

HBP—Moncrief (by Siegrist).

Umpires—Home, Ivan Mercado; Bases, Dustin Klinghagen. T—2:15. A—3,272.