NILES, OH - A long weekend of baseball ended in another loss for the West Virginia Black Bears at Eastwood Field. Mahoning Valley completed the sweep of the Black Bears on Sunday afternoon, beating the Bears, 10-4. As in the first three games of the series, West Virginia was plagued by inconsistent pitching, giving up four runs in two different innings.
For the second time in two days, West Virginia recorded the first run of the game. A double from 3B Tahir Meulens drove in DH Keenan Taylor to give the Bears a 1-0 lead heading into the home half of the inning. Starting pitcher Turner Spoljaric began his Black Bears debut strong, as the Bears defense retired the side in the first two innings.
During the third inning, however, Spoljaric walked two Scrappers back-to-back, allowing the first Scrappers RBI of the game with the bases loaded. Two more base hits ended in an additional three runs before Spoljaric ended the inning down in a three-run deficit.
Things looked up for West Virginia in the fourth frame as they plated three more runs to tie the game, 4-4. A wild pitch by Scrapper Miguel Alba brought home C Mauricio Millan with the bases loaded and no outs. After a pitching change, 1B Duncan Pastore scored on a sacrifice fly to center field by Christian Dunn. Centerfielder Haven Mangrum got his second RBI of the season and tied the game 4-4 with another sac-fly to left field that scored Meulens.
After the fourth, the Bears could not find home plate again, and the Scrappers took control of the game. Mahoning Valley would go on to score another four runs in the bottom of the fifth off RHP Tucker Shalley. The right-handed pitcher from Parkland College got through two innings before being relieved in the sixth. Additional runs scored by the Scrappers off LHP Jarvis Evans, Jr. and RHP Zach Bravo in the seventh and eighth innings, respectively, brought the final score to 10-4.
West Virginia returns home for the Home Opener at Monongalia County Ballpark on Tuesday, June 7, with first pitch set for 7:05 p.m. Opening Day at The Mon features a 2022 magnet schedule giveaway and post-game fireworks presented by WVU Medicine.
