FREDERICK, Md. – The Williamsport Crosscutters take their second-straight game to win their third-straight series as they defeated the Frederick Keys 14-5 on Sunday afternoon at Nymeo Field.

After twelve of the first thirteen batters of the ballgame were retired to begin the game, save for a lone Keys single, Williamsport’s offense would get things rolling in the top of the third. Carlos Castillo would reach on an infield single and steal second, his fifteenth swiped bag of the season. Two batters later, Castillo would score on a line drive double to center by Christian Reyes. Reyes would score as well two batters after that on another line drive double to center, this time off the bat of Jackson Mayo to give the Cutters the early 2-0 lead.

The Williamsport offense picked right back up in the fourth with Safea Villaruz-Mauai reaching on a lead-off single, stealing second and moving to third on a passed ball as Micahel Zarrillo walked. Zarrillo would then steal second to give the Cutters two in scoring position for Marcus Brodil to pick up single to drive both Villaruz-Mauai and Zarrillo in extend Williamsport’s lead to 4-0 in the middle of the fourth.

Frederick would respond in the bottom of the fourth with their first two runs of the ballgame, cutting the Williamsport lead in half at 4-2 after four innings.

The Cutters wasted no time getting those runs right back as Jackson Mayo would lead-off the fifth with his first triple of the year to the right field corner and scored on a Safea Villaruz-Mauai single two batters later. Villaruz-Mauai would move to second on a balk, move to third on a Michael Zarrillo infield single and score on a Marcus Brodil sacrifice fly to push the Williamsport lead back to four at 6-2 in the middle of the fifth.

The bottom of the fifth saw the Keys finally time up starter Reilly Shafer as they got three runs back before Sam Swygert entered to stop the bleeding, closing down the Williamsport lead to just one run at 6-5 after five innings.

The offensive slugfest continued into the sixth as Williamsport hit back once again with a Joey Parliment single and a Christian Reyes walk. Three batters later, both Parliment and Reyes would score on a double to center by Max Mandler. Mandler would score as well on a double by Safea Villaruz-Mauai to push the Cutters lead back up to four at 9-5 in the middle of the sixth.

After a scoreless seventh, Williamsport decided it was time to put the nail in the coffin in the top of the eighth. Christian Reyes, Jackson Mayo and Max Mandler would all single to load up the bases. Safea Villaruz-Mauai would pick up his fourth hit of the day and his third and fourth RBI of the game as he singled to right to score Reyes and Mayo while moving up Mandler to third and himself to second thanks to a throwing error by Trey Lipsey. That would bring Michael Zarrillo to the plate, who turned on a 1-1 pitch and drove it 382 feet over the right-center field wall for his first round tripper of the season. That swing would put Williamsport on top of Frederick by nine runs at 14-5 in the middle of the eighth.

Frederick and Williamsport would both fail to find the scoreboard again from that point as the Cutters picked up their second straight win and the series win with a 14-5 victory.

Reilly Shafer got the nod to start today for Williamsport and lasted 4 2/3 innings before being lifted, allowing five Keys runs on seven hits with two walks and two strikeouts.

Sam Swygert was the first reliever to come out of the bullpen today and would earn the win, improving to 1-1 on the season after going the next 3 1/3 innings, only allowing two Keys hitters to reach, both via a walk. Swygert also struck out three Keys in his outing.

David White came on to pitch the ninth in a non-save situation and retired the three Keys he faced in order to end the ballgame.

Williamsport remains on the road, making the trip out to Ohio to open a two-game series at the Mahoning Valley Scrappers on Monday night. First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. at Eastwood Field.

Cutters Carvings – Williamsport wins the series with Frederick two games to one for their third-straight series win and fourth series win of the second half… Williamsport leads Frederick in the season series 4-3 with five games remaining… All nine Williamsport starting batters recorded at least one base hit in today’s game…