Walk It Off Wilkening

Williamsport, P.A.- Jesse Wilkening provided the late inning heroics, providing the walk-off single in the bottom of the 10th inning to give the Cutters a 3-2 win over Batavia.

Jhordany Mezquita was forced to leave what was shaping up to be his best start of the season due to injury. Mezquita threw two hitless, scoreless frames, striking out five batters and walking just one before departing.

Rafael Carvajal took over on the hill in the top of the 3rd, working three scoreless frames, allowing just one base hit and striking out four batters.

Williamsport was able to get on the board in the bottom of the 5th inning, using a two-out bases loaded walk fromDanny Mayer to score Jesse Wilkening to give the Cutters a 1-0 advantage. It was Mayer’s 14th RBI of the season.

Batavia was able to answer with a solo home run from Brayan Hernandez in the top of the 6th inning off of Cutters reliever Austin Ross tying the game at 1-1. Ross would settle in and work three innings, allowing the one run on one hit while walking one and striking out four.

The Crosscutters had a golden opportunity to win the game in the bottom of the 9th inning as Jonathan Guzmansingled to open the frame and then advanced to 3rd on a wild pick off attempt with no outs. After a flyout by Wilkening, the Muckdogs intentionally walked Keudy Bocio and Ben Aklinski to load the bases. Seth Lancaster lined out to center, which kept the runners still and then Ben Pelletier lined out to short to end the threat.

Robinson Martinez worked a clean top of the 9th but was not able to keep the placed runner from scoring in the top of the 10th inning, as Sean Reynolds scored from 3rd on a sacrifice fly to left field off the bat of Igor Baez, giving the Muckdogs a 2-1 lead.

In the bottom of the 10thJake Holmes was able to tie the game with a RBI single to right-center, scoring the placed runner, Ben Pelletier, from 2nd base making it a 2-2 ball game on Holmes 3rd RBI and his first RBI at home.

After Holmes stole 2nd base, Matt Kroon ripped a single to left, and Jake Holmes ran through the stop sign at 3rd, getting tagged out between 3rd and home for the 2nd out of the inning. Kroon advanced to 2nd on the play. Jonathan Guzman extended the inning, reaching on an infield single to deep short, moving Kroon to 3rd base, bringing Wilkening to the plate.

Wilkening sent a soft-served single into right-center, scoring Kroon from 3rd base to give the Crosscutters their first walk-off win of the season with a 3-2 final. The RBI was the 5th of the season for the Cutters catcher.

The Crosscutters wrap up their two-game series against the Batavia Muckdogs tomorrow night. First pitch is scheduled for 5:05 p.m. at BB&T Ballpark.

Cutter Carvings – The Crosscutters pick up their first extra-innings win of the season, making them 1-4 in extra innings this season… Crosscutters pitching combined to strikeout 16 batters in the win… The Cutters were handed a walk-off loss by Batavia on June 21st