UNIVERSITY PARK – The State College Spikes continued to put on an outstanding defensive performance in the second half of the Major League Baseball Draft season, turning three double plays into a 9-2 defeat by the West Virginia Black Bears on Tuesday night at Medlar Field at Lubrano Park.
Despite the loss, the Spikes (20-15 2nd half) remained virtually tied with the Trenton Thunder (19-14 2nd half) for first place in the second half of the MLB Draft League standings with eight games to go, thanks to Trenton’s overtime loss to the Williamsport Crosscutters in the MLB Draft League.
The Black Bears (19-15 2nd half) moved within a half game of the Spikes and Thunder with their win, while the Mahoning Valley Scrappers (18-15 2nd half) fell 1 ½ games behind and the Frederick Keys (17-17 2nd half) fell three games behind after a rain-shortened tie at Eastwood Field on Tuesday.
The second half champion will face the first half champion, the Crosscutters, in the MLB Draft League Championship Game on Thursday, September 5, at Journey Bank Ballpark at historic Bowman Field in Williamsport.
The Spikes fell behind after West Virginia scored five runs in the third inning, capped by Jack O’Dowd’s three-run homer, his fourth of the season, into the outfield bleachers above the 18.55-foot-high right field wall. State College rebounded when Josh Spiegel hit a two-run homer 422 feet from the batter’s eye in center field in the third inning, his third home run of the season.
However, the Black Bears extended their lead again, capped by Trace Willhoite’s 418-foot solo hit in the ninth inning, his sixth home run in both halves of the season for West Virginia.
Nick Hohenstein (3-1) suffered his first loss of the season after allowing six runs on eight hits, one hit batsman and recording one strikeout in five innings.
West Virginia starter Brenton Thiels (3-0), who at 7-foot-4 is probably the tallest pitcher ever to take the mound at Medlar Field in Lubrano Park, limited the Spikes to two runs on six hits and three walks in five innings to earn the win. Thiels struck out four batters on the night.