If State College first baseman Mark Hamilton keeps this up, he won't be in this league much longer.

The Spikes power hitting infielder added two more New York-Penn League pitchers to his scrapbook, with two blasts over the right field wall. Hamilton's fourth long ball in three games helped the State College Spikes defeat Batavia, 7-4, last night. The victory -- the Spikes' third-in-a-row -- moved them within a half-a-game of the first place Muckdogs.

"He's been swinging the bat pretty good. I think his first [home run] was a hanging breaking ball and the second one was a ball that was out over the plate," Spikes manager Mark DeJohn said. "And we needed that two-run homer that he hit in the seventh. It shows up pretty well. Otherwise, it's a 5-4 game with a man on second [in the Batavia ninth]. The second one was real big."

This time Hamilton's victims were Batavia starter Alexander Concepcion and reliever Reymond Cruz. The two dingers make Hamilton the NY-Penn League Leader in homeruns, and put him at least in the conversation of a call-up to the Swing of the Quad Cities some time next month.

St. Louis Cardinals' first-round pick Adam Ottavino lasted 4-1/3 innings in his second professional outing. Ottavino struggled early but was able to recover and striking out four Batavia (5-3) hitters while only walking one.

"He struggled some in the first inning with his command and he was armside high and away in that first inning," DeJohn said. "But he made some adjustments and then came back and threw the ball better."

Ottavino was given massive run support, including catcher David Carpenter's RBI single with the bases loaded that helped spark a four-run second inning for State College (5-4). The Spikes never looked back.

Until the ninth inning.

For the second straight night, the Spikes bullpen almost coughed up a big lead in the home half of the bottom frame. This time it was Ryan Hodinka, who breathed life back into the game.

After walking Joel Naughton to open the inning, Hodinka was able to get the next batter to fly out to center fielder Jim Rapoport.

Then, things became interesting.

Back-to-back singles by Phillip Cuevas and Quintin Berry gave the Muckdogs their biggest threat to score since the first inning. A strikeout by Hodinka was immediately followed by a bases-clearing double by left fielder Gus Milner. Hodinka struck out pinch hitter Cody Montgomery to secure the victory.

Matt Sauceda (1-0) picked up his first win in relief, while Alexander Concepcion (1-1) was tagged with the loss for the Muckdogs.

Dave Hibbard of The Daily News (Batavia, NY) contributed to this report.