Spikes fall to Batavia 5-4

By rscaife
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Updated: August 2, 2018

By BRIAN CARSON

Hometown Sports correspondent

UNIVERSITY PARK – The ball was full of juice and traveling far after a two-hour, 20-minute rain delay in the State College-Batavia New York-Penn League tilt on Wednesday afternoon.

Muckdogs first baseman Sean Reynolds added to his league–leading home run and RBI totals with a solo shot in the first and an RBI double in the fifth as Batavia handed the Spikes their second straight loss with the 5–4 victory.

Reynolds hit his ninth homer of the season with a 355-foot jack to left and added his 29th RBI with a double to right in the two-run fifth inning.

Batavia (19-25) took a 1-0 lead on Reynolds’ homer off a 3-2 fastball in the first and extended the lead to 2-0 with a run in the second when Igor Baez singled to left and scored on an RBI knock to right by Luke Jarvis.

State College (19-25) halved the Muckdogs lead to 2-1 when Brady Whalen crushed a solo shot to right that traveled 387 feet. The homer was Whalen’s third of the season.

Batavia added to its lead with two runs in the fifth – with some help from the Spikes. Brayan Hernandez started things off by reaching second on a two-base fielding error by Lars Nootbaar. Another error by State College, this one from Whalen, put Demetrius Sims on at first and Hernandez at third. A double steal by the Muckdogs scored Hernandez. Reynolds followed by plating Sims with his eighth double of the season.

The Spikes made it 4-2 with a run in the seventh. Whalen and Alexis Wilson walked and Nick Dunn brought home his 23rd run of the year with a knock to left plating Whalen.

Batavia answered when State College committed its third error of the game when Jerar Encarnacion reached on a miscue from shortstop Delvin Perez, just his fourth error of the season. J.D. Osborne made it 5-2 with a double to the left-center gap that brought home Encarnacion.

The Spikes almost gave the home crowd something to celebrate in the bottom of the ninth when Wilson singled to left and Dunn blasted a two-run jack over the right-field fence to make it 5-4. Dunn finished with two hits and three RBIs. But that was a close as the Spikes would get as Perez grounded out to short to end the game.

State College, now 0-4 in day games, came up short on a goldenscoring chance in the fourth. Wadye Ynfante and Whalen connected on consecutive base hits to put runners on first and second with one out. Muckdog starting pitcher Humberto Mejia induced a Nootbaar fly out to center and a groundout to short by Wilson to end the threat.

Tyler Kolek (1-1) picked up the win for Batavia and Elkin Alcala recorded his fourth save. Franyel Casadilla (1-1) took the loss for the Spikes.

The Muckdogs out-hit State College 9-6 with Reynolds, Encarnacion, and Michael Donadio each getting two hits for Batavia. Whalen finished with two hits for the Spikes.

State College hosts Auburn for a doubleheader Thursday with the first game scheduled for a 4:05 start.