Cutters punish sloppy Scrappers again
By BILL ALBRIGHT, For The Sun-GazetteWILLIAMSPORT - For the second-straight evening, the Williamsport Crosscutters capitalized on their opponents mistakes, putting together a pair of hits, a hit batsman and a couple of errors for a three-run first inning.
And for the second straight night, they walked out as winners, downing the Mahoning Valley Scrappers 5-1 before 2,351 fans at Bowman Field.
"We have been doing a good job of taking advantage of other team's mistakes lately," said Cutter manager Dusty Wathan. "It seems when somebody plays us clean, we have a tough time getting some offense on our own. The sign of a good team is one that takes advantage of their opponents mistakes and fortunate for us, they made a few mistakes and we capitalized on them."
Meanwhile, Williamsport pitcher Kyle Drabek retired 12 of the first 13 men he faced and allowed one hit while walking and striking out none in six scoreless innings.
"Kyle was just tremendous tonight,"Wathan said of the 20-year old first-round pick, who is on his way back from Tommy John surgery. "It is just nice to see him healthy, throwing the ball well and gaining some confidence. This type of end of the season for him will be a big boost for him heading into spring training."
In the Cutters first, Arlon Quiroz and Cody Overbeck singled and Jim Murphy was hit by a pitch before the Scrappers committed a pair of errors.
Williamsport added its fourth run in the third on a double by D'Arby Myers and a RBI single by Brandon Haislet. In the seventh, Myers reached on the Scrapper's third error and scored on Murphy's RBI single.
