Niles, OH — After playing into the early morning hours the night before, Williamsport drops the first game of their series against Mahoning Valley 4-2 on the road. The Cutters were held hitless through the first seven innings, despite taking a 1-0 lead in the 1st.
Williamsport was able to take a 1st inning lead despite not getting a base hit in the frame. Jesus Alastre was hit by the first pitch of the game by Aaron Civale, took 2nd on a throwing error by Civale on a pick-off attempt. After getting moved to 3rd on a groundout, Alastre was plated on a RBI groundout by Luke Maglich to give Williamsport an early 1-0 lead.
The RBI was the 15th of the season for Maglich.
Mahoning Valley was able to take advantage of a throwing error by JoJo Romero that allowed Gabriel Mejia to get to 2nd base. After a groundout moved Mejia to 3rd, a pass ball by Henri Lartigue allowed Mejia to score and tie the game at 1-1.
Nate Winfrey connected on a two-run home run in the bottom of the 2nd inning to give the Scrappers a 3-1 lead, the home run was the 2nd on the season for Winfrey and the 2nd allowed by Romero this year.
Silento Sayles plated the final Mahoning Valley run in the bottom of the 4th inning to extend the Scrappers lead to 4-1 against JoJo Romero.
The Southpaw, Romero, took his first loss of the season, allowing four runs, three earned, on seven hits over five innings of work against the Scrappers. The lefty finished with four strikeouts and a walk.
Aaron Civale and Ben Krauth tossed seven no-hit innings for Mahoning Valley before Michael Letkowicz allowed a lead off double to Chandler Hall in the 8th inning. Hall finished the night 1-for-2 with the double, his 6th, and a run scored.
Evan Rogers brought home Chandler Hall with a RBI sacrifice fly to left in the 8th, cutting the Cutters deficit to two at 4-2. That would be the closest the Cutters would get to completing the come-from-behind win.
Williamsport falls to 5-2 against the Mahoning Valley this season with five more meeting between the two clubs.
Blake Quinn tossed three scoreless innings of relief for Williamsport, picking up five strikeouts while working around two hit batsmen, two walks and a hit. Quinn stranded four Scrapper base runners in scoring position.
The Crosscutters avoided what would have been the first no-hitter thrown by the Mahoning Valley Scrappers since September 1st 2013, when Luis Gomez, Carlos Melo and Kerry Doane combined to no-hit the Batavia Muckdogs.
Williamsport continues their three-game series against the Mahoning Valley Scrappers tomorrow night. First pitch is scheduled for a7:05 p.m. at Eastwood Field in Niles, Ohio.
Cutter Carvings – The Crosscutters were able to avoid being no-hit for the first time in franchise history…The game was delayed for 15 minutes by rain after the bottom of the 3rd inning…The Cutters left one runner on base in the loss…
