The Mahoning Valley Scrappers set a new standard for wins in a season with their 49th, the old record was 48.  With their 3-0 victory over State College, the Scrappers clinched home field advantage throughout the playoffs.   The Scrappers got outstanding pitching from Brett Brach and Tyler Sturdevant and put up enough offense to claim the win.  

The Scrappers wasted little time getting on the scoreboard and for the second consecutive night tallied in the first inning.  Casey Frawley (pictured, on left) walked with two outs.  Frawley would later score on a Jesus Brito RBI single to give Mahoning Valley a 1-0 lead.

In the bottom of the seventh, Ben Carlson (pictured, on right) singled and Chun Chen walked.  Rafael Vera then bunted the two Scrappers into scoring position.  Carlson scored on a wild pitch to make the score 2-0.  Argenis Martinez then bunted for a single with two outs knocking in Chen to cap the scoring at 3-0.

Brett Brach had a good start for Mahoning Valley.  Brach went six innings giving up three hits and walking none.  He also struck out six Spikes batters in lowering his ERA to 2.19 and boosting his record to 5-2 for the season.  Tyler Sturdevant pitched the last three innings and didn’t surrender a hit or a walk in picking up his third save of the year. 

Casey Frawley, who was the designated hitter Saturday,  talked about the importance of going after 50 wins for the year.  “We want to go hard and get this ring.  Tomorrow is a big game, we set a goal as a team to win 50 games at the beginning of the year.  It’s what I heard when I came up here, and it has been stressed more and more as we get closer.”

Travis Fryman commented on the potential to win 50 games also.  “This is something the players really want, 50 is a nice round number and sounds better than 49 to me.  It’s something to shoot for and a great accomplishment for a 76 game season.  I think they really want that, and they have earned it.”  Fryman also confirmed a possible return for Greg Folgia if he can hit and run the bases without pain during batting practice.

The Scrappers wrap up their regular season with their final game scheduled for Sunday at 5:05 against State College.  I will post the playoff schedule and ticket options in a seperate article tomorrow.