WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. - D.J. Smiley’s head-long slide into home sealed the Crosscutters Sudden Death victory over Mahoning Valley, scoring on a wild pitch, to split the series.
Reilly Shafer delivered his best start of the season for the Crosscutters, allowing just one run (unearned) on two hits, over six innings. The Clarion University product struck out four batters and capped the outing by picking off a runner at first to close the 6th inning.
Vantrel Reed picked up where he left off last night, ripping a double to left field to open the bottom of the 1st inning, setting up a big inning for Williamsport. It was Reed’s second double of the series and his fifth hit of the weekend.
After back-to-back walks to Jackson Mayo and Marcus Brodil, T.J Racherbaumer was hit by a Brandon Arnold offering to force in Reed from 3rd to give Williamsport a 1-0 lead.
Carlos Castillo extended his RBI streak to six-straight games, using a sacrifice fly to center to score Mayo and advance the Cutters lead to 2-0. It was Castillo’s 35th RBI of the season.
Braylon Bishop capped the scoring with a bases loaded walk, forcing in Brodil to make it 3-0 and give Bishop his 3rd RBI of the campaign.
Mahoning Valley took advantage of a Cutters error, scoring a run without getting a hit to cut the deficit to 3-1 in the top of the 2nd inning.
The Cutters offense got the run right back in the bottom of the 2nd inning, as Jackson Mayo ripped an RBI single to right field, scoring Reed, giving the Cutters a 4-1 lead. It was the MLB Draft League-leading 60th hit of the season for Mayo.
Castillo picked up another RBI in the 5th inning, chasing home Racherbaumer with a sacrifice fly to right. The shortstop's 36th RBI of the year gave Williamsport a 5-1 lead.
Shaffer settled in and shutdown the Scrappers over the next four frames, exiting with a 5-1 lead.
In the top of the 7th inning, things went sideways for the Crosscutters bullpen, as the Scrappers plated six runs to take a 7-5 lead. Jax Howard allowed four of the six runs, allowing all four batters he faced to reach base on a single and three-straight walks.
Davis Blair surrendered two runs of his own before getting out of the inning.
Blair worked a scoreless top of the 8th inning, striking out two of the four batters he faced.
In the bottom of the 8th, Williamsport was able to rally for two runs. Braylon Bishop singled home Smiley to make it a 7-6 deficit and Jackson Mayo plated Rayth Petersen with an RBI groundout to tie the game at 7-7. The Cutters had the go-ahead run at 3rd base when the final out of the inning was made.
Jared Ure threw a perfect inning of relief in the top of the 9th, picking up a pair of strikeouts. The Cutters batters would go down in order in the bottom of the 9th.
In Sudden Death, Smiley was the placed runner at 1st to start the extra session. With Petersen at the plate, trying to bunt Smiley over, the Cutters 1st basemen successfully stole 2nd base.
With Petersen, still trying to bunt Smiley to 3rd, Scrappers catcher Keegan Rodin tried to pick off Smiley at 2nd base, but the throw hit Smiley as he collided with shortstop Tommy Rover at the bag. The ball caromed into left, allowing Smiley to advance to 3rd.
After Petersen reached on an infield grounder, Braylon Bishop was intentionally walked to load the bases with no outs.
Joey Parliment popped out to 1st base, leaving the bases loaded for Vantrel Reed. Reed quickly found himself in a two-strike count but battle against Scrappers pitcher, Grant Manning, fouling off numerous pitches. Manning uncorked an offering to the back stop, allowing Smiley to raced home and beat the throw to the plate, giving the Cutters the walk-off win in Sudden Death.
The Cutters open their final series of the season tomorrow afternoon. They welcome in the State College Spikes for a 1:05 p.m. first pitch.
Cutters Carvings: The Crosscutters improve to 2-4 in Sudden Death in 2025, with both wins coming against the Scrappers… Vantrel Reed finished the series with seven hits, two doubles, four runs scored and four stolen bases… Jackson Mayo picked up his 84th total base of the season, tying Travis Holt for the most Total Bases by a Crosscutter in the MLB Draft League era…
