NO SWEET ENDING FOR COOKIE TABLES

By Ty Bartell 

 

NILES, OH — The State College Spikes secured a late comeback victory against the Mahoning Valley Scrappers, temporarily rebranded as The Mahoning Valley Cookie Tables, with a 6-4 win on Monday night at Eastwood Field.

The Scrappers honored a local wedding tradition by adopting the “Cookie Tables” moniker for the evening. Mahoning Valley jumped out to an early lead in the second inning when Adam Juran launched a two-run home run, giving the Cookie Tables a 2-0 advantage. They extended their lead in the third inning as Drek Dirksen drove in Dreylin Holmes, making it 3-0.
State College responded in the fourth inning when Kyle Russell’s RBI double and Austin Baal’s RBI single trimmed the Cookie Tables’ lead to 3-2. The Spikes tied the game in the fifth with a sacrifice fly by Parker Coddou, scoring Austin Roccaforte. Moments later, Russell struck again, delivering an RBI single that gave State College its first lead at 4-3.
The Spikes added insurance runs in the sixth and seventh innings with an RBI single by Josh Spiegel and an RBI double by Coddou, pushing their lead to 6-3.

Mahoning Valley threatened in the eighth inning, loading the bases with two outs, but State College reliever David Lee struck out Jake Allgeyer to preserve the lead. The Scrappers staged a rally in the ninth, scoring a run on Jake Tsukada’s RBI single and loading the bases again with two outs. However, Lee induced a pop-up from Zach Ketterman to secure the win and earn his second save of the season.

Jeremy Neff earned the win for State College, improving to 3-0 after a six-inning quality start. Grant Umberger, who missed his last start due to rain, took the loss for Mahoning Valley, falling to 0-1 on the season.

Both teams will continue their series on Tuesday, with the Scrappers (29-27, 13-9) returning to their usual identity as they look to even the series against the Spikes (32-26, 13-10).