Trenton, NJ – A high scoring affair at Trenton Thunder Ballpark that featured sixteen combined runs on 23 combined hits went to Sudden Death and saw Ali LaPread and the Williamsport Crosscutters walk it off on Tuesday night.
Williamsport's offense got started early as Ali LaPread and Mark Shallenberger would both work RBI walks in the first to score Porter Brown and Cory Taylor. Kyson Donahue would follow that up with a 2 RBI double to score Jacob Corson and LaPread to make it 4-0 Williamsport after one.
The Cutters scoring continued in the second as Cory Taylor laid down a sacrifice bunt to score Levi Perrell. Later in the inning, Ali LaPread would hit a sacrifice fly to right, scoring Porter Brown to push the Williamsport lead to 6-0.
Trenton responded in the bottom of the second with two runs but McGwire Holbrook answered back to lead off the top of the third with his fourth home run of the season, a 381 foot line drive over the left-center wall, to make it 7-2 Cutters.
Trenton would swing the momentum their way at this point, scoring five unanswered to make it a 7-7 tie after four innings.
The Crosscutters would retake the lead in the sixth, thanks to a Cory Taylor single that drove home Porter Brown, giving Williamsport a one run lead at 8-7.
Trenton would tie the game back up in the eighth on a wild pitch from Brett Thomas and that would cap the official scoring for the night.
Six Williamsport pitchers saw time on the mound tonight with Zachary Murray’s start only lasting 2.1 innings, allowing six runs on six hits with two walks and three strikeouts.
Jacob James was first out of the bullpen, going 2.2 innings allowing one run on one hit, a solo home run, with two walks and one strikeout.
Brett Thomas was charged with his second blown save of the season after allowing one run on no hits with one walk and two strikeouts in an inning of work.
Nick McCollum tossed one scoreless inning, allowing one hit with two strikeouts.
Parker Kruglewicz went 1.2 innings of relief, allowing three hits but no runs with one walk and two strikeouts.
Luke Baker closed out the game on the mound for Williamsport, coming out to replace Kruglewicz and set-up a lefty-lefty matchup in which he got the final out.
At this point, the game would move into MLB Draft League Sudden Death with the homestanding Trenton Thunder electing to be on defense.
Porter Brown was the placed runner to start Sudden Death. He would move to second on a Sac Bunt from Cory Taylor and went to third on a Jacob Corson groundout. That would bring Ali LaPread to the plate who, despite being 0 for 3 on the night, singled into right field to score Brown and give the Crosscutters the walk-off victory.
Per MLB Draft League rules, stats from Sudden Death are not officially recorded and there is no winning or losing pitcher for the contest.
This three game set between the Williamsport Crosscutters and Trenton Thunder continues on Wednesday night at Trenton Thunder Ballpark for Game #2. First pitch is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. and live coverage will be available on Crosscutters.com and the MLB.tv App.
Cutters Carvings - Williamsport snaps a seven game losing streak with tonight's walk-off win...Williamsport is now 2-3 in Sudden Death in 2024...There were three ejections tonight, including Cutters left fielder Mark Shallenberger and Cutters pitching coach Anthony Markle...
