As the game sat at a tie in the fifth inning with the ball in catcher Nick Stillwagon's hand, the State College Spikes had already dug themselves out of a five-run, first-inning hole.
Spikes second baseman Matt Cavagnaro had driven in two runs on a clutch double in the fourth, but was gunned down at third attempting to the steal the base , ending the threat. Stillwagon had an opportunity to return the favor in the fifth, eyeing a similar throw-out of Williamsport's Matt Spencer at third.
The ball sailed wide of State College third baseman Bobby Spain, and the game also got away from the Spikes. With a total of four errors, the Spikes (30-33) dropped a sloppy 9-5 decision to the Crosscutters.
Starting pitcher Matt Foust was pulled after only two-thirds of an inning -- one of the few pitchers in the short history of Medlar Field at Lubrano Park to fail to make it past the opening inning. Foust has had trouble making it to the fourth inning in five of his last six starts.
Foust, who was a sixth-round pick out of Nebraska in the 2007 MLB Draft, gave up four unearned runs on 35 pitches. Yoffri Martinez then came in to end the digging on the first-inning hole, only to a throw a wild pitch into the backstop, which would help extend the Crosscutters' lead to 5-0.
Martinez would go on to retire the next eight batters while the Spikes scored five unanswered runs in three innings. But costly throwing errors and 12 hits by the Crosscutters sealed the teams' fate. Williamsport wasn't exactly efficient, either, leaving 12 runners on base during the course of the game.
The Spikes have now lost three straight and six out of their last seven. They will travel to Williamsport (26-38) at 7:05 tonight to finish the season's series versus the Crosscutters.
Veteran honored
D.J. Emery, an ex-high school baseball player in Bellefonte who was honored as part of Military Appreciation Night at Medlar Field, caught a foul ball from his wheelchair in the fifth inning.
A veteran of the Iraq War, Emery is a Purple Heart recipient after surviving a suicide bombing attack in February. Emery received a pregame souvenir, a standing ovation from the 5,289 in attendance, before grabbing a ball that flew off of Crosscutter Mike Durant's bat and ricocheted off of a nearby wall.
In the seventh inning, Emery and his family led the stadium in a rendition of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game."
Shut down?
Reports within the Pirates organization had indicated that pitcher Daniel Moskos, the 2007 No. 4 overall pick from Clemson, would be shut down because of recent struggles.
But despite a 5.68 earned run average, entered last night's game in relief of Martinez. He would go on to surrender two runs, in one-and-a-third innings.
