NY-PENN LEAGUE

Scrappers befuddle Spikes

Bill Albright For The CDT

NILES, Ohio — When you don’t score, common sense dictates you won’t win the ballgame.

That was the case for the State College Spikes as they fell 3-0 to Mahoning Valley on Saturday at Eastwood Field.

Not only did the Spikes (38-39) fail to score, they only had one runner advance past first base. Miguel Mendez led off the sixth inning with a single before being stranded at third.

David Rubinstein’s infield single in the second inning and Brock Holt’s leadoff single in the fourth were the Spikes’ only other hits.

The Scrappers started the scoring with two out in the first inning.

Casey Frawley walked, Jason Kipnis followed with a single to right and Jesus Brito chased Frawley across the plate with the game’s first run with a line single to right.

State College starter Phil Irwin came out on the short end as he allowed the first-inning run. Irwin (1-2) worked the first three innings, allowing two hits in his short stint. He walked one and struck out one.

The Scrappers built on the 1-0 advantage as they played small ball to score two more runs.

Although they had already clinched the Pinckney Division title, the win was a record 49th for the Scrappers. Mahoning Valley entered the New York-Penn League in 1999.

“I’ll be real honest about it, I am very proud of what these guys have accomplished,” Scrappers manager Travis Fry-man said. “After we clinched the division last week in Williamsport, we talked about what else we could accomplish. One of the foremost things we talked about was that we had a chance to tie or break the record for most wins in a season. We knew there would be a little letdown after we clinched the division, but they continued to play hard.”

Following the New York-Penn League’s All-Star break, the Scrappers faced a number of difficulties, one of which was some injuries to key players.

“We had some obstacles with our injuries, but we had some guys who picked up the slack and that was important for us,” he said.

Spikes manager Gary Robinson was unavailable for comment following the game.

The teams will close out the regular season at 5:05 p.m. tonight. The Spikes will send Jeff Inman (0-0) to the mound in his third outing of the season. The Scrappers will counter with Preston Guilmet (6-5, 3.67 ERA).