NEW YORK-PENN LEAGUE

Quick pitches

Spikes’ arms cut down hot-hitting Muckdogs

Guy Cipriano

UNIVERSITY PARK — The New York-Penn League's version of a veteran vs. veteran sequence ended with Batavia's Xavier Scruggs belting a Kyle McPherson fastball six inches below the Medlar Monster's yellow line.

Craig Houtz

State College Spikes starting pitcher Kyle McPherson fires to the plate against Batavia Muckdogs on Tuesday, July 7, 2009.

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The one-out double in the sixth inning possessed damaging implications.

The State College Spikes and Muckdogs were tied 1-1 in a brisk game featuring little evidence to suggest either team would reach three runs.

So McPherson ensured the Spikes could win by scoring twice.

McPherson skirted through a precarious situation as the Spikes needed just 105 pitches to edge Batavia 2-1 in a tidy game Tuesday that took just 2 hours, 6 minutes.

The combination of McPherson, Alan Knotts and Marc Baca combined to allow seven hits and no walks against a Batavia team that leads the NY-PL in batting average. The efficient efforts allowed the Spikes (10-9) to produce the game-winning run on Evan Chambers’ two-out, eighth-inning double to center field that scored Ty Summerlin.

“They did a great job,” said Chambers, who also hit a game-winning homer during last Saturday’s victory over Williamsport. “That’s exactly what we need from our pitchers — to keep us in close games like that.”

The reward for the double was a shaving cream pie from teammate Justin Byler. And, no, Chambers, who went 2-for-4, never experienced that baseball tradition during his career at Hillsborough (Fla.) Community College.

“It was pretty funny,” he said. “I’m going to get Byler back.”

Nothing jovial existed about what McPherson encountered in the sixth.

After Scruggs, a member of Batavia’s 2008 NY-PL championship team, doubled, the Muckdogs (10-9) sent 20-year-old Cuban Ryde Rodriguez to the plate. Rodriguez entered the box with a .352 batting average.

McPherson quickly regrouped to strikeout Rodriguez with a changeup. He then ended his night by inducing Ivan Castro into an inning-ending pop up.

“It was big to comeback after he put a good swing on a good pitch,” McPherson said. “For me to battle back and help the team out was big.”

The start was McPherson’s best since a demotion from full-season West Virginia. McPherson, a 14th-round pick who spent part of 2007 and all of last season in State College, appeared in 13 games and made eight starts for the power. He lasted five or more innings in six starts, but the Pittsburgh Pirates sent him back to State College, anyway.

McPherson, 21, appears driven to return to full-season baseball.

His first outing at Mahoning Valley on June 22 included some glitches as he allowed 10 hits in 42/ 3 innings. McPherson has rebounded to give the team 17 quality innings in his past three starts — all one-run victories.

“(The demotion) was a big hit,” said McPherson, who has 23 strikeouts and one walk. “I try not to let it affect what I do on the field as much. But I knew that I had to come here and continue to do the things I need to do to stay successful and stay prepared.”

Pitching coach Mike Steele praised McPherson’s attitude since joining the team last month.

“He has been great,” Steele said. “He’s ready to work and he’s very professional about what he does. He’s a great, great kid.”

Knotts and Baca followed McPherson’s lead, allowing one baserunner during the final three innings. Knotts, another NY-PL veteran, needed 16 pitches to toss two perfect innings.

Baca allowed a one-out single to Rodriguez in the ninth. But pinch-runner D’Marcus Ingram never advanced past second base as Baca induced two straight groundouts to earn his second professional save. McPherson, Knotts and Baca combined to throw 81 strikes, and Batavia recorded its only run when Ryan Jackson scored on Alan Ahmady’s single in the first.

“That’s impossible to repeat night after night,” manager Gary Robinson said. “But that’s the standard we would like to try to work toward.”

Batavia pitchers Daniel Calhoun and Michael Blazek were almost as effective as the State College trio. The duo allowed seven hits and walked one in eight innings. Summerlin and Chambers’ consecutive doubles in the eighth represented State College’s only extra-base hits.

“That’s a good club,” Robinson said. “They threw a lot of strikes, too. We were just fortunate to square up a couple of balls in the eighth.”

Notes:Garrett Corl, a Stormstown resident and State College High School graduate, worked as the field umpire. This marks Corl’s first 2009 stop at Medlar Field. Corl worked a series here last September. ... The Spikes announced that Victor Black, a supplemental first-round draft pick, will make his first professional start in Thursday’s series finale. Black has pitched three relief innings. Phillip Irwin, a 21st-round pick, will make his first start Friday against Jamestown.