This season just wasn’t the Crosscutters’ year
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Sometimes, it's just not your year.
This is a reality that the Williamsport Crosscutters have begun to face for the 2023 season. It was a rough prelude based off of the first half, with Williamsport finishing plum last in the first-half MLB Draft League Standings.
But now into the second half, the Cutters are flirting with the basement once again.
It hadn't all been bad for Williamsport, with the second half featuring some remarkable talents and games that are sure to live on in memory. The Cutters even showed its formidability at times, with ballclub at one point tied for third place in the second half standings.
But cut to one eight game stretch later which Williamsport would win just twice, and the Cutters are back in the basement with 15-22 record, and mathematically eliminated from the second half title placing nine and a half games back with nine games to play entering Thursday.
Where did it go wrong during the stretch?
Ultimately the same pitching woes that beset Williamsport in the first half would once again rear its ugly head in the second half.
The staff ultimately showed a ton of promise, starting with a solid starter duo of Shawn Gamelin and Zac Shoemaker putting in decent shifts on the hill to begin. Certain relieivers were also becoming mainsteads, with Connor Langrell taking the closing spot by the horns. Other relievers, including most notably as of late Mitchell Scott have become solid inning eaters in their own right.
But ultimately, what doomed Williamsport from clinching back to back second half titles was a nasty injury bug that beset Williamsport right before the torrid road stretch. Over the coarse of a week span prior to the road trip which began on Aug. 15, Williamsport suffered a pair of brutal injuries to starting pitchers Zac Shoemaker and Tyler Prospero.
Prospero ultimately never got to shine in Williamsport, going just three innings whilst giving up one run before catching the bug. Shoemaker's was equally tragic, injuring himself on a slippery mound in the outing after coming two hits shy of a no hitter. Reliever Enrico Peele would also falter against the slippery mound, getting injured during his outing out of the pen in a 13-5 loss that became the turning point for Williamsport.
The fixture was ultimately ended in seven due to extreme fog in the area. Little did the supporters and players know that the fog would be carried with them until present day.
While they would split the next home series vs. Mahoning Valley, Williamsport would start the roadtrip horrifically, conceding 42 runs in just two games against the Frederick Keys with the 6-0 shutout victory that came in the finale becoming moot. A similarly dastardly series would follow, with the Cutters dropping a three game set two to one against Mahoning Valley.
Williamsport carried the losing to trend to State College this week, dropping the first two games of the set which concluded Thursday night at Bowman Field.
The 2023 Williamsport Crosscutters are a team of immense talent in both halves. The first half generated seven draft picks from the squad including three in the first 10 rounds. The second half continued the production, with the offensive talents of guys like Jose Gonzalez, Brayland Skinner, and Mason Minzey putting themselves amongst the best of the best in the league.
But ultimately, the 2023 Williamsport Crosscutters will be equally defined as a team that couldn't catch a break when they desperately needed one.