By the time State College Spikes third baseman Pat Irvine saw the throw to first base coming, it was already too late. Irvine -- who was taking a lead from first base -- was picked off in the bottom of the fourth inning, again taking away a potential run for the Spikes struggling offense.
"We collected some hits, we're starting to get the barrel back to the ball which is a good sign," Spikes manager Gary Robinson said. "We just need to get some hits with people on base, its about RBIs now and having an inning instead of squashing it."
In their 5-1 loss, the Spikes tallied nine hits, but only got the single run to cross home plate. State College was shut down by poor base running that led to several players being picked off.
With runners on first and third in the bottom of the second, shortstop Andy Vasquez hit an RBI single, but catcher Miguel Mendez was thrown out after being caught off second base. Vasquez was then caught trying to steal second and the Spikes ran themselves out of more runs.
"We had the inning going when we plated a run with no outs then we got the out at second," first baseman Justin Byler said. "But that's baseball, we got a little aggressive and went too far to make a play and their pitchers were able to shut us down after that."
After the Spike's aggressive approach earned them a victory on Tuesday night, their efforts to hawk bases betrayed them Wednesday. Byler said he thought the Spinners pitchers were extra alert to State College's tactics, especially in the later innings.
For the pitching staff, they know the offense will get the runs across eventually and are just focusing on pitching to the best of their abilities. Pitcher Jason Erickson said he doesn't feel any added pressure and his focus is always to put up zeroes.
"I know the offense will be fine, they're going to put up runs, there's no pressure on us," Erickson said. "The good thing about baseball is that we can fix it tomorrow. We just put this behind us and come out tomorrow and win a ballgame."
With games coming up with division rivals Mahoning Valley and Batavia, Robinson said the team would have a chance to fix its problems and get back into the chase.
"Its an opportunity to help ourselves," Robinson said. "We'll play like we do every night and hopefully we can get things put back together."
