NILES, OH – Fresh off a series win at home over the Frederick Keys, the West Virginia Black Bears returned to Eastwood Field to face the Mahoning Valley Scrappers in their second meeting of the season. Despite returning with some confidence after recording their first wins of the season, the Bears ultimately dropped game one of the three-game series by a score of 6-4 as Mahoning Valley was propelled by a three-run third inning.
West Virginia took the lead in the top of the first with three consecutive singles off the bats of CF Haven Mangrum, SS Brandon Dieter, and RF Sam Crail. Crail’s single went down the left field line and drove in Mangrum from second base.
Mahoning Valley answered with a run of its own in a two-out rally off starting pitcher Matt Brown in the bottom half of the first.
The Bears recaptured the lead in the top of the second when a fielder’s choice groundout by Mangrum plated LF Christian Dunn. Dunn tacked on his first hit as a Black Bear with a single to right field earlier in the inning, and the Bears ended the second frame leading, 2-1.
However, things quickly went south for West Virginia in the third inning when Mahoning Valley tacked on a trio of runs highlighted by a two-run RBI from 1B Sam Beers. Beers was able to score later in the inning on a fielder’s choice, bringing the score to 4-2.
Morgantown-native Ross Mulhall cut the Scrappers’ lead down to a pair of runs with a towering shot down the left field line for his first homerun of the summer. The Shepherd University product gave the Bears some life going into the final third of the game as he cut the deficit, 5-3.
The back-and-forth scoring continued through the last two innings. Scrappers LF Anthony Hansen scored in the bottom of the seventh off of Black Bears southpaw Sayer Dietrich. West Virginia tried to rally in the ninth when Duncan Pastore crossed the plate on a wild pitch from Scrapper RHP Sean Goodwin. However, Goodwin earned the save for Mahoning Valley as the Scrappers finished the game up, 6-4.
The Black Bears fall to 2-6 on the season, still searching for their first road win of the 2022 season. West Virginia returns to Eastwood Field tomorrow night for game two of the three-game series, with first pitch scheduled for 7:05 p.m.
