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M.V. goes down before dusk
Photo
Scrappers shortstop Robel Garcia steps on second and avoids the slide from Crosscutters baserunner Brian Pointer during the first inning of Wednesday’s game at Eastwood Field.
NILES
If any of the 2,920 fans at Eastwood Field planned on star-gazing after the Mahoning Valley Scrappers game on Wednesday, they picked the wrong night.
The tilt with the Williamsport Crosscutters was over by 9:15 p.m., the sun still hadn’t completely set over the ballpark and, frankly, the lights really didn’t even need to be turned on at the stadium.
“They must’ve had somewhere to be,” manager Ted Kubiak said.
Starting pitcher Robbie Aviles said that wasn’t necessarily the case in the 2-1 loss to the Crosscutters.
“I don’t think so,” he said, laughing. “We really couldn’t believe it was going that fast, either. The game was flying.”
While many of the kids in attendance were probably happy to get home and catch the end of their favorite show on Disney Channel or Nickelodeon, the Scrappers know that work — especially on offense — is ahead of them.
They got just two hits and their only run came by way of a Delvin Perez balk in the second inning.
“You don’t hit, you don’t score,” Kubiak said. “There’s not much you can say. We’ve got some guys that can hit the ball. You can’t talk about it, you got to do it.
“They’ll have extra batting practice tomorrow.”
Hunter Jones and Joe Wendle collected the only hit for Mahoning Valley (2-8) in the second and third innings, respectively. The Crosscutters faced the minimum starting in the fourth inning and retired the Scrappers in order for the remainder.
Conversely, they limited Williamsport (6-3) to just seven hits. Aviles went five innings and surrendered just one run before handing the ball over to Josh Martin.
Martin was masterful in his four innings. He gave up a home run to Chris Serritella to lead off the sixth inning, the first batter he faced, but after that it was smooth sailing.
“Martin did a great job,” Kubiak said. “I think he got a little bit upset after that and started throwing a little bit better. His breaking ball had some bite to it and we learned that he had a cutter.”
The 12th-round draft pick out of Samford University struck out the side in both the eighth and ninth innings. He finished with seven strikeouts.
After Aviles was pulled, he spent most of his time in the clubhouse. But, right away, he found out that his reliever was polishing off hitters.
“I came back out and see he struck out seven batters in four innings,” Aviles said. “That’s great. For some reason I’m not striking anybody out and he was racking them up out there.”
Mahoning Valley third baseman Joe Sever caught a screaming line drive for the second out in the second inning. Quickly, he dove back to the bag as Mitch Walding had a sizeable lead. He forced him out to end the inning, much to the dismay of Williamsport manager Andy Tracy. Tracy, coaching third base, ran directly over to base umpire J.J. Billinksi, removed his hat and bumped into him while arguing the call. Tracy was then tossed for the second night.
The Scrappers remain at Eastwood Field to open up a new series with the State College Spikes beginning tonight at 7:05 p.m.
CROSSCUTTERS 2, SCRAPPERS 1
WilliamsportScrappers
abrhbiabrhbi
Quinn ss3000Bradley cf4000
Pointer rf4010Siliga lf4000
Perkins 1b4000Valerio 1b3000
Srritella dh4111Romero dh3000
Greene lf3120Wendle 2b2110
Olmo cf4010Jones rf3010
Walding 3b4011Sever 3b2000
Moore c4010Lucas c3000
Greene 2b3000Garcia 2b3000
Totals33272Totals27120
Williamsport010001000—2
Scrappers010000000—1
DP—Williamsport 1, Scrappers 1. LOB—Williamsport 7, Scrappers 1. 2B—Greene (3). HR—Serritella (1). CS—Wendle (1). PO—Perez, Wendle.
IPHRERBBSO
Williamsport
Perez W, 1-0521121
Hanson300002
Cooper100001
Scrappers
Aviles551110
Martin L, 0-1421117
Balk—Perez. HBP—by Aviles (Quinn). Umpires—Home, Sam Vogt; Bases, J.J. Bilinski. T—2:10. A—2,920.