WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. – After beginning the game down by three, the West Virginia Black Bears came back to win game one against the Williamsport Crosscutters, 9-3, at Muncy Ballpark at Historic Bowman Field on Tuesday evening. West Virginia’s bats caught fire with a huge fifth inning to take the lead with six runs on five hits.
With the win, the Black Bears have won seven of their last eight contests and move to 10-11 on the season, closing the gap to two games behind the top-ranked Crosscutters.
Williamsport struck first in the bottom of the first inning as they took a 3-0 lead. In his third appearance for the Bears, Gross allowed three runs on three hits in the home half of the inning, though settled in after the first. He finished his two-innings pitched with four hits, while allowing no more runs after the initial inning.
The Bears began their comeback campaign in the second. Crosscutters’ pitcher Aaron Roberts loaded the bases on walks before hitting CF Caeden Trenkle with a pitch to send C Hunter May across the plate for West Virginia’s first run of the game. With the bases still loaded, SS Savier Pinales launched a sac-fly to center field that scored LF Kyle Hess and cut the Crosscutters’ lead to one run.
In the bottom of the third, Rhian Mann took the mound in relief of Gross to begin his two-inning appearance. Mann (2-0) took the win with a dominant performance for the Bears as he retired the side in both innings, with three groundouts in the third and three strikeouts on 15 pitches in the bottom of the fourth.
Williamsport kept West Virginia at bay for two more scoreless innings before the bears awoke. It began with a wild pitch from Cutters’ lefty Andrew Walling. Blaze Brothers, who reached first on a single to left field, stole second and third base to put him in scoring position. After walking 1B Ryan Hernandez, a throwing error by the Crosscutters allowed Hernandez to steal second while Brothers crossed the plate to tie the game, 3-3.
With the go-ahead run on second, May singled to left field to bring home Hernandez and give the Black Bears the lead. May scored two plays later on an RBI single from Trenkle that put runners on the corners. The next at-bat, Pinales singled on a line drive to right field that brought home Hess and put the Bears up, 6-3. Then, in a wild sequence of events, RF Sam Crail was called out swinging, but a wild pitch that hit the backstop allowed him to reach first base. In the confusion, both Trenkle and Pinales crossed the plate to give the Black Bears a commanding five-run lead.
After the second mound visit of the inning, Williamsport finally recorded the last two outs, but not before allowing West Virginia to take the lead by a score of 8-3.
The Bears put up on one more run in the top of the seventh on a passed ball by Williamsport catcher Jax Cash to finish their offensive turnaround with nine runs on 10 hits.
After the first inning, the Black Bears held the Crosscutters scoreless through six, with relievers Wyatt Wendell, Zach Ottinger and Trey Braithwaite allowing just one hit in their combined three innings. Braithwaite, the MLB Draft League “Pitcher of the Week,” struck out two batters out of four faced, with every pitch clocking in at 95 MPH or higher.
West Virginia returns for game two of the three-game series at Williamsport tomorrow evening with first pitch set for 6:35 p.m.
