Batavia, N.Y. – Colby Fitch may not want to leave Batavia, as the Cutters catcher homered for the second straight night, helping the Cutters to a 5-2 victory over the Muckdogs.
Jhailyn Ortiz made his presence back in the line up felt right away as the Cutters right fielder drilled a Sean Guenther offering to deep center, landing just out of the reach of a diving Thomas Jones. Ortiz strolled into 2nd base with his 6th double of the season.
Josh Stephen plated Ortiz with a RBI single into shallow right center, giving the Crosscutters a early 1-0 lead against the Muckdogs. It was the 15th RBI of the season for Josh Stephen, who quietly has moved into 2nd place on the club in the category.
Brian Mims added on to the Crosscutters lead in the frame with a RBI single through the right side, scoring Stephen and giving Mims his 2nd RBI of the season, and the Cutter a 2-0 lead. Mims, who has only played in six games this season, now has a six-game hitting streak.
Spencer Howard went the first three innings for the Williamsport Crosscutters, marking it the longest outing of his short career. Howard allowed just one run, it was unearned, over the three innings, surrendering three hits and a walk while failing to strikeout a batter.
Batavia got their run against Howard in the bottom of the 2nd inning, as Terry Bennett scored Thomas Jones with a RBI single to cut the Cutters advantage to 2-1. The reason it went as unearned, Jones reached on a bunt single, but a errant throw by catcher Colby Fitch allowed him to advance all the way to 3rd base.
In the top of the 5th, Nick Maton led off the frame with a bloop single into left center, reaching in front of Fitch. With the count sitting at 1-2, Fitch got a Josh Alberius offering he could handle and that he did, launching a no-doubter over the wall in right to give the Cutters a 4-1 lead and give Fitch his 2nd home run of his career and 2nd home run in as many nights.
The blast was the Crosscutters 21st home run as a team in 2017, but it also extended Colby Fitch’s hitting streak to eight games, which is now tied for the longest streak by a Crosscutters this season, as Greg Pickett had an eight-game streak earlier in the season.
Connor Seabold worked around a couple base runners over his two innings of scoreless relief, earning his first win as a professional. Seabold allowed a pair of base hits, and struck out a pair as the former Cal State-Fullerton Titan extended his scoreless inning streak to 6.0.
Adam Haseley put his mark on the game in the top of the 7th inning, batting with the runners on 1st and 3rd with one out, grounding out to 2nd, scoring Nick Maton to extend the Cutters lead to 5-1. It was Haseley’s 10th RBI of the season. Haseley finished the night 0-4 with four groundouts to 2nd.
Batavia chipped away at the lead in the bottom of the 7th inning, getting a sacrifice fly from Jhonny Santos to score Terry Bennett from 3rd base, cutting the Williamsport lead to 5-2, against Zach Warren.
Warren allowed just the one run, earned, over two innings of relief. He allowed a pair of hits while striking out a pair of batters as he was credited with a hold.
Damon Jones worked the final two innings out of the Crosscutters bullpen, not allowing a run in that stretch, earning his 2nd save in as many chances this season. Jones struck out a game-high four batters.
The Crosscutters wrap up their series with the Batvia Muckdogs tomorrow night. First pitch scheduled for 7:05 p.m. At Dwyer Stadium.
Cutter Carvings – Brian Mims RBI was his first since his debut on June 25th at Auburn… Jhailyn Ortiz finished the night with a pair of doubles, giving his seven on the season, tied for 2nd on the team… Williamsport has now won 18 straight games against Batavia…
