The Mahoning Valley Scrappers were firing on all cylinders against the team with the best record at their level.  The Scrappers dominated Staten Island in every possible way en route to a 13-5 win.  The Scrappers pounded out 13 hits as Tony Wolters (above) went 5-6 and Todd Hankins and Jerrud Sabourin each collected a pair of doubles in the barrage.  Sabourin knocked in four.

“We went out and got hits in key situations tonight”, remarked Wolters after the game.  “They are a good team but we were a little better tonight.  It feels awesome to be in first place, we are excited about it.”

The Scrappers scored in the first when Bryson Myles reached via error, and later scored on an error. They added a run in the second when Hankins doubled and scored on a Sabourin sac fly in the second.  In the third the Scrappers plated four with Myles, Wolters, Jake Lowery, and Smith all scoring.

The floodgates opened in the bottom of the fourth.  Myles reached on an error, Wolters singled, and Lowery walked.  Jordan Smith then singled to extend his home hitting streak to 18 games.  Cody Elliott then hit a sac fly, Alex Lavisky walked, and then Hankins hit an RBI double, followed by Sabourin hitting a two-run double.

Joseph Colon (above) threw 81 pitches in four innings of work for the Scrappers. Colon was only able to complete four innings but fought his way out of mostly every obstacle.  He showed a lot of heart and got some run support departing with an 11-1 lead.  Colon’s only mistake was a third-inning home run to Staten Island’s Ben Gamel. The beneficiary of Colon’s early exit was Will Krasne, in line to get a gift win.  Krasne struggled, walking five in two-and-a-third innings, but ultimately got the job done to pick up the win.

The game got delayed 15 minutes due to inclement weather.  The high scoring didn’t help the pace much.  It was 9:35 p.m. after the sixth inning and the crowd of 2,345 was filing out with the outcome presumably decided.

Having interviewed Wolters before the game, I learned he was very superstitious. Claiming he changes everything when he has a subpar game –  from his wristbands to his sliding pants to the time he eats, I kidded that if he went 5-5 that I would not be able to interview him every night.  He just laughed and shrugged his shoulders.

“Same everything tomorrow, nothing will change”, said a joyous Wolters after his five hit gem.

David Wallace praised the effort of Wolters and Sabourin.  “Special night for Wolters. The way I look at it, it is the fruit of a lot of hard work.  When he stays within himself, he is a great player.  Jerrud [Sabourin] has really stepped up these last couple of weeks.  He has been swinging a good bat all year without much reward, now he seems to just be hitting over their heads.  If he keeps hitting like this, he will not be near the bottom of the order very long.”

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