ABERDEEN, Md. - Trailing 3-2 heading into the final two innings, the Williamsport Crosscutters rallied for five runs in the eighth and ninth innings to capture their fifth straight victory, defeating the Aberdeen IronBirds 7-4 on Monday night at IBEW Local 24 Union Field at Ripken Stadium.
Williamsport opened up the scoring in the first as Jack Kail reached on a fielder's choice, advanced to second on a James McCoy single, took third thanks to a passed ball and scored on a Matthew Williams single for the early 1-0 lead.
Aberdeen would respond with two runs to take a 2-1 lead after one inning.
It would be Jack Kail scoring again in the sixth to tie up the game at 2-2 after a single put him on base and an RBI fielder's choice from Santino Panaro brought him home.
Aberdeen responded again in the bottom of the seventh for another run, retaking the lead at 3-2.
At this point, the rally began with for the Cutters with AJ Solomon (error), James McCoy (single) and Matthew Williams (single) loaded the bases for Santino Panaro, who singled to bring home Solomon. McCoy would then score on a sacrifice fly from Nicholas Romano while Williams scored on a Nick Barone single to give Williamsport their first lead since the first inning at 5-3 in the middle of the eighth.
The ninth inning saw the rally continue with insurance runs as AJ Solomon worked a lead-off walk and Jack Kail followed that up with his first home run of the season, a 370 foot fly ball over the right field wall to make it 7-3 in the Cutters favor heading to the bottom of the ninth.
Aberdeen would use a home run of their own to get a run back and bring the game to it's final score of 7-4, giving Williamsport their fifth straight victory.
Righty Ryker Walton got the start for Williamsport and worked the first 6.2 innings in a no-decision, allowing three runs on seven hits with four strikeouts.
Tyler Muscar entered to pitch the final 2.1 innings and earned his first win of the season, allowing a home run in the ninth but retiring all the other batters he faced.
Neither Walton or Muscar allowed a walk or a hit by pitch throughout the ballgame.
The first place Williamsport Crosscutters will now go for the series sweep of the second place Aberdeen IronBirds Tuesday night at IBEW Local 24 Union Field at Ripken Stadium. First pitch for the series finale is scheduled for 7:00 p.m.
Cutters Carvings - With tonight's win, Williamsport moved 1.5 games ahead of Aberdeen with seven games remaining in the regular season... Williamsport was 5-for-10 with runners in scoring position tonight... Matthew Williams picked up his 40th RBI of the season in the victory...
