A look at the offensive statistics of the State College Spikes might be confusing and even contradictory.
The Spikes are 10th out of 14 teams in the New York-Penn League in batting average entering Wednesday, yet they are fifth in runs scored. They're fifth in walks but lead the league in strikeouts with 110. In fact, State College has scored at least four runs in each of its last five games. Yet the Spikes are only 3-2 in that stretch.
The new strange trend seems to be that State College has problems maintaining its offense as the game goes on. The Spikes have scored in only two innings in each of the last four games.
Even stranger is that as quickly as the offense comes, it tends to disappear. The Spikes only managed three hits after the second inning Monday, and only one after the fourth Tuesday.
"It's just the player's immaturity, and it's human nature," Spikes Manager Gary Robinson said Tuesday night. "You have a tendency when you get a four-spot or a five-spot to, without even thinking about it, 'alright, I gotta get mine. We got a four-run lead, I gotta get mine.' They get away from playing the type of team offense that you need to play to score runs, and they get more individual."
Monday and Tuesday night, all 10 runs came in a four-inning span. Six in the first and second innings Monday, and four in the third and fourth innings Tuesday. For the two innings Monday and Tuesday, Robinson and the rest of the team saw the potential for what the offense could do when things are going good.
"Start putting good at bats together and good things will happen," third baseman Pat Irvine said. "Start working counts, trying to hit the ball the other way and eventually the big hit will happen and that's how you have big innings."
The offense could be more consistent with the addition of Aaron Baker to the State College roster. Robinson is hoping that with some at-bats, Baker can add a new dimension.
"He's gonna be hard to pitch to once he gets some at-bats," Robinson said. "He's a big guy, he's gonna have good plate coverage, he's shown the ability to drive the ball to the opposite gap, which is a plus. He's gonna definitely help us."
And for Baker, tied for eighth all-time for RBIs at the University of Oklahoma, he doesn't feel any pressure to help an offense that has one home run in 12 games.
Maybe his words might be the best way to erase the memory of Tuesday night.
"I think when you come up here, it's kind of like a fresh start," Baker said. "What happened in the past is the past, and this is professional baseball now, so this is kind of a fresh, clean slate."
