GRANVILLE, W. Va. - For the second time in three nights, Matthew Williams notched a home run as the Williamsport Crosscutters defeated the West Virginia Black Bears in the series opener on Thursday night by a final score of 6-4 at Kendrick Family Ballpark.
That Williams home run, a 403 foot blast to center field, came leading off the second inning and opening the scoring for the ballgame.
Later in the top of the second, Santino Panaro would reach on a fielding error by Black Bears second baseman Cayden Gaskin and be driven in by a Jake Zitella single to make the lead 2-0 in the middle of the second.
West Virginia would get one of the runs back in the bottom of the second and another in the bottom of the third to tie the game back up at 2-2 after three innings of play.
Williamsport would quickly retake the lead in the fourth as Santino Panaro led things off with a single up the middle, stole second, moved to third on a Nick Barone groundout up the first base line, and scored thanks to a passed ball allowed by Black Bears catcher Zack Thompson to make it 3-2 in the middle of the fourth.
West Virginia would tie the game back up with a run in the bottom of the fifth inning at 3-3.
That 3-3 score would hold until the eighth inning as Williamsport struck again with Nicholas Romano would lead things off with a double to center and advance to third on a Jack Kail groundout. James McCoy would be intentionally walked and Matthew Williams would walk on a wild pitch that allowed Romano to score. Two batters later, McCoy would score on a Santino Panaro bunt single to give the Cutters a 5-3 lead in the middle of the eighth.
Williamsport also added an insurance run in the ninth as Joey DeMucci singled with one away, moved to second on a Nicholas Romano groundout and scored on a Jack Kail single.
West Virginia would threaten in the ninth and get one run across, but would leave the tying runs on base as Williamsport took the 6-4 victory.
Bobby Helt lasted five innings in his start, not factoring into the decision, after allowing three runs, one earned, on six hits with two walks and five strikeouts.
Luc Lavigueur worked two innings to earn the win, allowing no runs on three hits with a strikeout while improving his season record to 3-1.
Davin Pollard earned his first save of the year after throwing the final two innings, allowing one run on three hits with three strikeouts.
The nine-game road trip continues with the middle game of the three-game set at West Virginia Friday night. First pitch is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. at Kendrick Family Ballpark.
Cutters Carvings - Santino Panaro stole three bases in the win, his first three stolen bases since debuting with the Cutters... Williamsport committed two errors tonight: a pickoff attempt error by Bobby Helt and a throwing error by Nicholas Romano... Williamsport turned two double plays tonight: an unassisted double play by catcher Joey DeMucci and a 6-4-3 double play by Sam DeCarlo, Jack Kail and Matthew Williams...
