After a disastrous three-game set at home that saw three losses at Bowman Field, the Williamsport Crosscutters would take on the first-place State College Spikes in a time where both ballclubs seemed to have been moving in the wrong direction.

But to no surprise, baseball has a funny way of evening things out.

And in that weekend series, Williamsport put in their two best performances of the second half, securing two crucial wins and keeping hope alive for a title run in the second half.

“I think we just came to play, more than anything else,” said Williamsport manager Kenny Thomas during Tuesday batting practice. “After the rain out loss on Friday night … it kinda T’d them off a little bit. I think they just came in with a different attitude. They always come in to work hard, we just haven’t been able to do the little things. And over the weekend, we did the little things.”

DAVE KENNEDY/Sun-Gazette Jackson Mayo of the Williamsport Crosscutters hits a single in the third inning against the West Virginia Black Bears at Bowman Field last week. West Virginia swept a three-game series at Bowman against Williamsport last week, but the Cutters bounced back against State College this past weekend.

Saturday’s fixture came the day after Williamsport were swept by the West Virginia Black Bears. In a nightmare series against West Virginia that saw the Cutters concede 17 runs across the three games, Williamsport pitching would allow a single run against the Spikes in a decisive 3-1 decision.

Continuing his remarkable start to the second half, Williamsport ace Colton Cosper pitched six innings as Williamsport’s starter, allowing just two hits with seven strikeouts in the win.

With the victory, Cosper’s record improves to 2-0 with his earned run average across three starts settling at 0.53, first amongst qualified pitchers in the MLB Draft League by nearly 80 points.

In terms of offensive production, Jackson Mayo was the start and the finish. A revelation for the Cutters, the Florida native would go three for four on the night, driving in all three runs with a two run home run in the third and an RBI double in the fifth.

“We really pitched well,” discussed Thomas on the win. “(Cosper) did a great job, our bullpen did a great job. It wasn’t a lot of runs scored, but we got a big home run (from Jackson Mayo) that helped us and it was great.”

DAVE KENNEDY/Sun-Gazette Max Mandler of the Williamsport Crosscutters is safe at first as Jace Rinehart of the Black Bears tries to make the tag in the fifth inning at Bowman Field last week. West Virginia swept a three-game series at Bowman against Williamsport last week, but the Cutters bounced back against State College this past weekend.

While runs came at a premium on Saturday, the opposite would be the case on Sunday. In a game that saw 20 combined runs and 28 total hits, Williamsport would complete their second sweep of the second half with a 12-8 victory.

With the stars showing out on Saturday, it would be the bottom of the order that made the difference in Sunday’s fixture.

TJ Racherbaumer had an outlier performance in the seven spot, going three for four with three runs batted in, scoring three times in the process.

But the unrivaled star of the show would belong to nine-hole hitter Marquis Jackson. Going into Sunday, Jackson had just one hit in 16 at-bats with the Cutters. By the end of Sunday, his batting average would go from .062 to .190, with the outfielder going three for five at the plate with three runs batted in.

Two of those runs would score in the ninth inning, when the left hander unloaded a 388 foot home run over the left field bleachers. Jackson’s two run blast was his first home run in over a calendar year, which extended Williamsport’s lead out of reach.

DAVE KENNEDY/Sun-Gazette Williamsport’s Carlos Castillo is safe at second during a game against the Black Bears. West Virginia swept a three-game series at Bowman against Williamsport last week, but the Cutters bounced back against State College this past weekend.

“The second night was a little bit of a slugfest,” admitted Thomas. “It started like that and ended like that. Both games our guys played really hard, and I was really proud of them.”

“The first night went two hours and 15 minutes, and the second night went three hours and 15 minutes,” chuckled Thomas. “Two totally different games.”

Williamsport will look to continue their stretch into this week, with the Cutters hosting the Mahoning Valley Scrappers in a three-game set at Bowman Field.