NEW YORK-PENN LEAGUE

Back atcha: Muckdogs take middle game of series

Muckdogs win pitching battle to take middle game

Guy Cipriano

UNIVERSITY PARK — At times, the ball scooted to shortstop Brock Holt and second baseman Ty Summerlin. At other times, it zipped into an outfielder's glove.

CDT/Christopher Weddle

Spikes pitcher Maurice Bankston throws against Batavia at Medlar Field at Lubrano Park on Wednesday, July 8, 2009. CDT/Christopher Weddle

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After Wednesday’s seventh inning, Maurice Bankston scooted to the clubhouse, and the Batavia Muckdogs zipped past the State College Spikes.

A 70-pitch, seven-inning outing by Bankston yielded a loss as the Spikes fell to Batavia 4-2 in another game controlled by starting pitchers at Medlar Field at Lubrano Park.

These are intriguing nights for starting pitching enthusiasts.

The past four starters combined to throw 23 innings (an average of 5.75 per pitcher) and 266 pitches (an average of 66.5). The stinginess can best be defined by the combined three runs allowed by starters.

“These have been two great baseball games,” Spikes manager Gary Robinson said.

Take away developmental necessities, such as pitch counts and piggybacks, and at least one member from a group that includes State College’s Bankston and Kyle McPherson and Batavia’s Eric Fornataro and Daniel Calhoun tosses a complete game either Tuesday or Wednesday.

Fornataro, a 2008 sixth-round pick from junior college power Miami-Dade, helped Batavia, which lost 2-1 in the opener, even the series by allowing two hits in five scoreless innings. He threw just 54 pitches.

“The starting pitching has been great on both sides and runs have been at a premium,” Spikes third baseman Pat Irvine said. “You have to battle each at-bat and you don’t really know what run is going to be beat you because you haven’t been scoring many the last few games.”

Bankston’s outing represented the longest of his three-season professional career. The Spikes didn’t score until reaching hard-throwing third-round pick Joseph Kelly for two hits and two runs in the ninth, so Bankston dropped to 1-1 since arriving in State College from full-season West Virginia.

There’s no shame attached to his work night.

Batavia (11-9) touched Bankston for six hits, including Niko Vasquez’s RBI double to left-center in the fourth. But the Spikes trailed just 1-0 when Mike Felix replaced Bankston to begin the eighth.

Bankston’s outing resembled the one composed by McPherson on Tuesday. Their career stories also feature similarities.

Bankston, like McPherson, is a 2007 draft pick who started this season at West Virginia, yet received the difficult news he was headed back to State College last month. Bankston went 1-4 with a 4.98 ERA in nine starts for the Power before straining his oblique. “It’s been rough,” he said.

Whatever lingering pain existing from the demotion and injury seems hidden. Bankston, a 2007 eighth-round pick from Texarkana (Texas) Community College, has meshed with the Spikes and he said lessons absorbed from watching McPherson a night earlier helped against the Muckdogs, who are hitting a league-best .270.

“It’s definitely a carry over,” he said. “I want to do just as good as McPherson. Competition in this game makes you better. It makes the team better.”

Robinson said pitching to first-pitch contact benefited Bankston.

“Stand-up job,” Robinson said. “He needed that. That will be good for him.”

The only hitter to hurt Bankston also reached Felix, a 2006 second-round pick making his third NY-PL stint.

The Muckdogs increased their lead to 3-0 on Vasquez’s two-out, two-run single to right field in the eighth. Vasquez, who went 3 for 4, singled after Felix issued a two-out walk to Ryde Rodriguez.

The Spikes took their best at-bats once Fornataro left the game.

Scott Schneider’s portion of Batavia’s piggyback included three walks to load the bases in the bottom of the eighth.

The next sequence was the game’s best.

Batavia manager Mark DeJohn ordered pitching coach Timothy Leveque to replace Schneider with Kelly, a third-round pick from Cal- Riverside with a fastball that touches 96 mph. The Spikes sent cleanup hitter Aaron Baker to the plate with the bases loaded.

The count went to 3-2. Baker hit a hard groundball to second base Devin Goodwin who calmly fired to first baseman Xavier Scruggs for the third out.

The Muckdogs added an insurance run in the ninth on Goodwin’s two-out double to left field. David Rubinstein walked, Irvine tripled to left field and Edward Garcia singled to right field off Kelly, trimming the lead to two runs and forcing DeJohn to replace Kelly with LaCurtis Mayes.

Mayes struck out Craig Parry and walked Butch Biela before Brock Holt bounced into a game-ending double play.

“We pitched well enough to win and so did they,” Robinson said. “It was just one of those nights.”