Williamsport, Pa. - Bobby Helt held Mahoning Valley scoreless over five innings, earning his second win, as the Crosscutters picked up a 8-1 victory over the Scrappers on Saturday night at Journey Bank Ballpark at Historic Bowman Field.
Helt utilized his defense to help navigate his longest outing of the season, getting a double play in the top of the 1st inning to erase a lead off single. The right-hander induced six ground ball outs and struck out four, earning his second win of the season.
Matthew Williams and the Crosscutters offense wasted no time getting the scoring started, as Williams plated Nicholas Romano in the bottom of the 1st inning to give the Cutters a 1-0 lead. It was the 31st RBI of the year for Williams.
In the bottom of the 3rd inning, Sam DeCarlo and Nick Barone provided back-to-back RBI singles and Nicholas Romano added a RBI bases-loaded walk to push the Cutters lead to 4-0. For Barone, it upped his RBI count to 26 for the campaign.
The Cutters added four more in the bottom of the 5th inning, utilizing a wild effort from former Cutters pitcher Tyler Deitz (’25). Dietz allowed four runs on four walks and seven wild pitches over a third of an inning, helping the Cutters to an 8-0 lead.
Santino Panaro capped the scoring in the 5th inning with a two-out RBI double, his first extra base hit and RBI of the season.
Tyler Muscar relieved Helt in the 6th inning and gave the Cutters three strong innings. Muscar allowed an unearned run in the 8th inning, but did not allow a single hit in the outing.
Kenney Fabian entered in the 9th inning, working around a pair of singles to close out the game for the Crosscutters.
Williamsport looks to complete the series sweep against the Scrappers Sunday afternoon. First pitch scheduled for 4:05 p.m. at Journey Bank Ballpark.
Cutters Carvings: Bobby Helt has worked nine scoreless innings against the Scrappers over his last two starts of the season… Scrappers starting pitcher Alex Kanipe exited the game with two outs in the bottom of the 2nd with an apparent injury… The Crosscutters improved to 10-4 against the Scrappers this season…
