Just one night after a defensive collapse, the Mahoning Valley Scrappers regrouped and took care of business with a 5-3 win over the Auburn Doubledays.  The win pulls the Scrappers into a first place tie with the Doubledays in the Pinckney Division with identical records of 29-20.  Rob Nixon threw six good innings and the bullpen worked hard to keep Auburn at bay.

The game was delayed an hour by rain, and a good crowd of 2,000 plus stuck around to watch the Scrappers battle back to claim victory.  This was the second game of the two-game series.  Auburn won last nights game with the assistance of seven Scrappers errors.

Coach David Wallace said after that game that his players were probably embarrassed by their performance and that he probably would not address the problem.  Saturday’s result being much different, Wallace claimed afterwards that he stuck to his original plan.  “It took care of itself.  I was paying attention to how the guys would react today and how they were coming into the clubhouse, and just as I expected, they moved on, and that was evident in the way they played tonight.”

Nixon (above) threw six strong innings for the Scrappers for his fifth win, putting him in a tie for the most wins in the league.  He is a great location pitcher, sort of a Greg Maddux-type who will not overpower hitters, but locates his pitches and lets his defense do the work.  Drew Rucinski started the seventh and pitched two scoreless innings of relief.  Enosil Tejeda came in to start the ninth and slammed the door for his team-leading seventh save as he struck out all three Doubledays batters he faced with some dominant pitching, a big change in contrast from Nixon.

“He didn’t have his best stuff tonight, but he battled through it”, said Wallace of Nixon’s performance.  “He used the defense tonight.  A lot of guys nibble and nibble and get walks.  He was not afraid to challenge guys and trusted his defense, and that is how he got through six innings and picked up the win.”

Auburn tallied the first run on a Matt Skole RBI single that drove home leadoff hitter Caleb Ramsey.  Mahoning Valley went ahead 2-1 in the bottom half of the first inning.  With two outs, Jake Lowery and Jordan Smith were issued back-to-back walks.  Red-hot Todd Hankins (top photo) then tripled in both Scrappers base runners with a gapper to right-center.  Hankins would trot home a couple of pitches later on a wild pitch from Doubledays starter, Nathan Karns, who took the loss.  Auburn cut the lead to 3-2 in the second when Justin Miller tripled and would later score on a Billy Burns sac fly.

In the third, the Scrappers reclaimed the two-run lead to go ahead 4-2.  Tony Wolters, who had the rare “feat” of being hit in each foot during two separate at-bats scored on a Jordan Smith (above) single.  Auburn again cut the lead to 1 with a run in the fifth.  Mahoning Valley again responded in the bottom of the fifth when they closed out the scoring, forging ahead, 5-3.  It was a duplication of their last run as Wolters was hit in the other foot and Smith drove one through for his second RBI.

These two teams will both be on their respective buses headed to Auburn for about five hours.  ETA is set for about 5 a.m. and they will face off for two more in Auburn on Sunday and Monday to decide which team will walk away in first place.