It was a different night and a different location. The change was exactly what the State College Spikes needed.
The Spikes battled a different opponent in the Auburn Doubledays. The lineup was even shuffled around a bit.
These switches ended up being factors in sparking a slumping State College team who ended its three-game losing streak last night, defeating the Doubledays, 8-4.
The first noticeable difference between last night and the previous series against the Mahoning Valley Scrappers was the ease in which starting pitcher Duke Welker put away the Doubledays (21-21). In his first four innings of work, Welker only saw two more than the minimum amount of batters and gave up two irrelevant singles.
Unlike the past three games, the Spikes (20-22) were the first to score and scored more in the fourth inning than they did in the entirety of Wednesday night's game. First baseman Justin Byler led off the inning with a single and moved to second on a throwing error by Doubleday starter Wilfreddy Aguirre.
He scored when right fielder Miles Durham doubled to centerfield, putting State College on the board first, something it hasn't done of late. The big hit in the fourth, however, was not Durham's double but turned out to be a two-run homer by catcher Nick Stillwagon.
Byler would not let Stillwagon get all the glory, however. After not getting the hometown luck he tried for against Mahoning Valley, Byler found his swing last night, taking one of Aguirre's pitches deep for a solo homer in the fifth.
This would be more than enough for Welker (2-1) to work with as he continued to pitch with confidence against Auburn. After allowing a single in the third, he retired eight batters in a row. He ended up going five scoreless innings in his best outing as a Spike, allowing two hits, striking out five while walking none.
The changing of pitchers came a bit too early to keep his shutout intact. After a fly out, relief pitcher Jorge Charry walked the next batter and then lofted a pitch over the plate, one that the Auburn hitter took deep, cutting the Spikes lead to three. He gave up two runs and walked three in one and two third innings.
Charry's relief, Adam Simon, threw a wild pitch to bring the Doubledays within two. He would get out of the inning without allowing any more runs.
This win began the team's move back toward first in the New York-Penn League Pinckney Division.
