Williamsport, PA — The Cutters offensive struggles followed them home as they fall for the first time this season, the Williamsport Crosscutters fell at BB&T Ballpark as they lost 3-1 to the Aberdeen Iron Birds.
The Aberdeen Iron Birds jumped out to an early lead, scoring a run in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th innings, while flexing their muscle in the process. Chris Clare’s solo home run in the 3rd gave the Iron Birds a 2-0 lead while Chris Shaw’s solo home run in the 4th extended their lead to 3-0. Both home runs were surrendered by Cutters starter Bailey Falter.
For the Iron Birds, they have connected on 12 home runs through their first 21 games of the season, which is 2nd in the New York-Penn League behind the Tri-City Valley Cats.
Falter, despite giving up three earned runs and the two home runs, did have a solid outing, tying his season-high with eight strikeouts in the losing effort. Falter has struck out 16 batters over his last two starts, both of which have come at home.
The Crosscutters did avoid being shutout for the first time this season, thanks to a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the 9th inning by Luke Maglich to score Darick Hall. For Maglich, it was his team-leading eight RBI of the season.
Hall reached in the 9th after being hit by an Andrew Elliot pitch. It was the sixth time this season that Hall has been hit by pitch, leading the Cutters and the New York-Penn League in that statistical category.
Kenny Koplove and Alex Kline combined for four innings of shutout relief, totaling four strikeouts in the process.
Koplove tossed a pair of shutout innings, allowing just one hit while picking up a pair of strikeouts. Kline tossed two hit-less, shutout innings with a pair of strikeouts.
Williamsport finished the night 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position, dropping their batting average with runners in scoring position to .158 in games that they have lost. The Cutters also stranded seven runners in the loss.
The Crosscutters look to even the series against the Iron Birds tomorrow night at BB&T Ballpark. Williamsport will send Julian Garcia to the mound. First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 p.m.
Cutter Carvings – The Crosscutters have dropped four-straight games for the second time this season…The two home runs were the first allowed by Crosscutters pitching at BB&T Ballpark this season…Arquimedes Gamboa collected a pair of hits, including a double in the loss…
