Beckley- The West Virginia Miners’ pitching struggles led to a 10-1 loss Tuesday night against the Chillicothe Paints at the Linda K. Epling Stadium.
The Miners started the game well with both teams scoring once, but the Paints quickly gained an advantage.
Chillicothe scored eight runs in the second inning with four walks, four hits and two hit batsmen to pull away. Miners’ Dimitri Stamatopoulos started pitching consistently with low balls, eventually switching to Eric Gustofson.
Jason Downs eventually got his time to pitch, helping to bring the Miners back in the game defensively by the fifth inning.
Miners manager Tim Epling spoke on how it was dealing with these issues.
“The plan was just to piece things together and make sure they still got good work in, get them some work on the mound.”
While the Miners improved defensively, they couldn’t come back offensively. Their first and last score was in the first inning from centerfielder Tiger Borom.
Plenty of opportunities to score early in the game were lost with the Miners leaving several players on base throughout the game. The hosts were able to piece together a few more hits throughout the game, but never made a dent in the score.
In the end, Mr. Epling was still proud of the energy his team put forward near the end of the game.
“We had too many walks, but if you take a look at the scoreboard we had eight hits, they had eight hits,” Epling said. “If you take a look at the energy they had, you take a look at the plays they played on defense, you look at the plays Tiger made out in the outfield, you see the energy they had in the eighth and ninth inning, that was good. That’s what I wanted to see. So when that happens, that lets you know we’re almost there.”
The Miners have still not had a chance to play with a full roster, and many players have only played a little.
“All these new people are going to come in, and so from that point on it’s just a matter of getting those guys in. They’re very good, and it’s gonna be kinda fun once we get everybody together and everything squared away,” Epling said. “I’m not pushing the envelope on it right now, I’m not worried about it at all.”
The two teams will face off tomorrow at Chillicothe beginning at 7:05 p.m.