STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Buried beneath an avalanche of runs during the first two games of the series with the New York-Penn League’s best team, the State College Spikes responded with some quality pitching Friday.
Starter Nick Kingham and relievers Mike Jefferson and Mitch Fienemann held Staten Island to six hits as the Spikes snapped a two-game losing streak with a 2-1 win over the Yankees at Richmond County Bank Ballpark. It was just the second win at Staten Island for State College and the first since July 21, 2007.
An RBI groundout by Kirk Singer and back-to-back RBI doubles by Samuel Gonzalez and Chris Lashmet gave the Spikes (8-20) a 2-0 lead in the top of the third inning and accounted for a third of State College’s base hits for the evening.
They would be all the runs the Spikes’ pitchers would need, though, against a Yankee offense that had scored 15 runs in the first two games of the series.
Kingham (1-2) allowed only two baserunners through the first four innings, and had one of them quickly erased by a double play. He ran into some trouble in the fifth inning, when Raymond Nunez and Shane Brown led off with consecutive singles, but got Casey Stevenson to fly out to center, retired Wes Wilson on a fielder’s choice and then got Benjamin Gamel to ground out to first to end the inning and temporarily preserve the shutout.
The Yankees (21-5) snapped that shutout in the eighth. Wilson doubled to left off Jefferson and went to third on Gamel’s groundout. He scored on Grice’s sacrifice fly to center field.
Kingham allowed four hits, did not walk a batter and struck out one in five innings. Jefferson allowed two hits and struck out two without a walk in three innings. Fienemann worked a 1-2-3 ninth, striking out Zach Wilson and Nunez, for his fourth save of the year.
Lashmet was the only Spike with more than one hit. Wilton Rodriguez (0-3) took the loss, allowing six hits, walking two and striking out six in five innings of work.
The Spikes visit the Williamsport Crosscutters at 7:05 p.m. tonight. State College right-hander Matt Benedict (1-0) is scheduled to go against Williamsport right-hander Colin Kleven (1-1).
