Local Sports

Fassnacht knocks in winning run

With the third baseman drawn in on the infield grass, Nate Fassnacht's eyes grew big. Pat Borders had no intention of asking the Williamsport Crosscutters' designated hitter to drop down a bunt in the bottom of the 10th inning of a tied game. So the shallow third baseman provided Fassnacht another opportunity to drive in the winning run.

And when State College's Fabian Blanco offered a 1-1 slider down and in, Fassnacht drove it past Shane Benes at third base. Pinch-runner Nicolas Torres easily scored from second base and the Crosscutters walked off with a 3-2 win in 10 innings in their penultimate home game of the season.

Williamsport ended State College's playoff hopes with the win. The Spikes needed to sweep the season's final series and still needed help with losses from Batavia and West Virginia. Instead, at two games behind both teams, State College's playoff hopes are dashed with just two games remaining.

"Finishing the season strong and playing these games good is very important for how we grow and how we continue in our careers," said Fassnacht, who drove in two of Williamsport's three runs. "Pat stresses how important it is to play these games well every day. We're still out here practicing every day and we're here to get better because the season isn't over."

Last night's walk-off win at Bowman Field was just the next step in what has been a wildly successful second half of the season for the Crosscutters. Since falling to 10-27 at the midway point of the year, Williamsport is 22-15 and they've done it with performances much like last night.

The combination of Adam Leverett, Chris Micheles and Anton Kuznetsov didn't allow an earned run. And the only two runs it did allow were because of two dropped fly balls in the eighth inning which erased a Williamsport 2-0 lead. And with the pitching staff shutting down the best offense in the New York-Penn League, the Williamsport offense was opportunistic. It improved to 27-12 when allowing three runs or fewer.

Fassnacht drove in a run in the bottom of the second inning with the first of his two hits. He shot a ball to right field to score Johan Rojas from second base. And it was that swing thought which took the ball to right field in the second inning which was part of the reason he was able to pull the game-winning single inside the third-base bag.

The eighth-round pick out of George Washington University finished off a solid August performance with a 2 for 3 night last night. He entered the month hitting just .191 for the season, but his strong game last night has his average up to .231 and has him being a consistent contributor to an offense which has found its footing in the second half of the year.

"I'm just trying to go back to simplifying everything," Fassnacht said. "I think in the middle of the season I was overthinking stuff and now I'm feeling more free and trusting my swing more."

So when he stood in the box in the bottom of the 10th inning last night, his plan was to find a way to drive another pitch the other way like he did in the second inning. But when Blanco offered up a down-and-in slider on his 1-1 offering, the opposite-field approach allowed Fassnacht to stay back on the pitch enough to keep it fair and hit it hard enough to get past Benes.

Fassnacht has driven in 13 of his 17 RBIs in the last month of the season.

"He was swinging all the way. He's a better hitter if he's trying to hit the ball the other way," Borders said. "It keeps his bat head through the zone. And since he kept that mindset, he was able to hit that slider and keep it down the line."

"My natural swing just kind of yanked it down the line," Fassnacht said. "It's an awesome feeling, especially coming down to the end of the year like this. It's a cool moment to have."

Fassnacht got the opportunity to drive in the winning run because Kuznetsov was brilliant in the top of the 10th inning with a runner placed at second base by the international tiebreaker. The Russian left-hander struck out Terry Fuller on a 3-2 pitch and then caught Pedro Pages looking at a 2-2 pitch right down the middle.

And after a visit from pitching coach Hector Berrios to remind him to work the edges of the plate against lefty Matt Duce, Kuznetsov induced an inning-ending grounder to shortstop Bryson Stott standing right behind the second-base bag in the shift.

"(Duce) was a lefty with a high average against lefties, which indicates that he hits off-speed really well," Borders said. "So you don't want to throw him off-speed, at least not off-speed over the plate. And if he goes outside the zone and chases and gets a groundball, that's great."

"That was incredible," Fassnacht said. "That changes the way we approach the bottom of the inning, too. It allows me to swing away instead of bunting and playing for one run."