SCRAPPERS STUNNED BY BLACK BEARS IN OPENER

By Ty Bartell

NILES OH- The West Virginia Black Bears stunned the Mahoning Valley Scrappers with a commanding 17-3 victory in the first game of a two-game set on Tuesday night.
Both starting pitchers, Max Banks for Mahoning Valley and Aric McAtee for West Virginia, began the game with 1-2-3 first innings. However, the Black Bears opened the scoring in the top of the second inning. A couple of rare Scrappers errors in the field allowed West Virginia to capitalize with two runs, taking an early 2-0 lead.

West Virginia blew the game open in the top of the third inning when Roman Kuntz crushed a grand slam to right field, extending their lead to 6-0. The Scrappers managed to get a couple of runs back in the bottom half of the inning off a double-steal throwing error by Black Bears catcher Ryan Grabosch and an RBI single from Will Shannon, making it 6-2.

Despite this brief rally, it was not Mahoning Valley’s night. The Black Bears scored in four of the next five innings, including crooked numbers in three of them. The offensive onslaught was highlighted by two more home runs from Jeff Liqouri and Jordan Rogers, giving West Virginia all the offense they needed in a 17-3 rout of the Scrappers.

Mahoning Valley (8-4) will look to bounce back against West Virginia (6-7) in the final game of this two-game set on Wednesday night at Eastwood Field, with first pitch scheduled for 7:05 p.m.