Out of the 10 runs Tri-City scored Wednesday in its win over the State College Spikes, four of them came off of State College errors.
"It's always frustrating whenever you messed up," Spikes second baseman Brock Holt said. "But we've been playing great defense up to this point, it's been good. Defense has been gelling well, we're making some good plays, we're getting to some balls. We have a bunch of range in the infield, so we're not too worried about it."
Wednesday's performance not withstanding, the Spikes have shown a good deal of improvement in recent weeks defensively, especially with Holt playing more at short, Ty Summerlin playing at second base and Andy Vasquez getting time at third and platooning with Pat Irvine. Holt was playing second after he arrived in State College and Vasquez was at short before he was injured and Summerlin took his spot as a starter.
It's a big difference from June, when multi-error games were a normal occurrence for State College. Six times last month, the Spikes committed multiple errors in a game. Wednesday night was the third time this season the Spikes committed four errors in a game, one of those being opening night, and the seventh multi-error game this season.
Surprisingly, it's not the team record for most errors in a game. The Spikes have committed six errors in a game three times since coming to State College, two of them coming last season.
But, during the last homestand, State College tied the franchise record for consecutive errorless games with three. Before Wednesday, the last multi-error game for the Spikes was July 7 -- a 2-1 win.
"Any time that a defense like ours that's usually pretty consistent, when we throw some balls away, when we make some errors here and there, that gets a little frustrating at times," Spikes first baseman Aaron Baker said. "What's important for us is to try and shake it off because even the greatest make errors. We're gonna make errors too that we normally wouldn't make."
The four-error performance just compounded what has been a rough road away from State College for the Spikes. After a 4-2 homestand, State College has dropped the first two on its six-game road trip entering Thursday.
Regardless of the result, this will be the first series the Spikes have lost this month, and the recent two-game losing streak has dropped State College back down to .500.
But Wednesday night's starter was quick to re-assure his faith in his defense, even after the mistake-prone loss.
"It's just one of those nights, it happens," Spikes pitcher Tyler Cox said of Wednesday night. "I'm not losing a bit of confidence in any of my position players. They're gonna make every play for me the next inning, I know they will."
