Beckley – Baseball’s a game where one pitch can change the entire contest.
It can end and inning or ignite a rally. The West Virginia Miners figured that out the difficult way.
Leading 2-1 in the second inning with two outs, the Miners issued three straight walks with all three batters scoring in a 9-4 loss to Champion City Saturday in Beckley.
Miners starter Myles Daniels nearly escaped the catastrophic second inning after allowing a leadoff triple to Lukas Galdoni, who scored on a wild pitch. Daniels struck out the next two batters and had the third, Edrick Padilla, down 0-2 in the count but walked him. Daniels couldn’t find the strike zone for either of the next two batters, the No. 8 and 9 hitters in the lineup, loading the bases.
“He was kind of streaky and lost his rhythm,” Miners manager Tim Epling said. “I went out there and talked to him and let him know that I thought he threw a couple of breaking pitches I thought caused him to get out of rhythm. He should’ve just pounded the fastball. Then he walked a lot but those things happen.”
Leadoff hitter Chase Carney made Daniels pay, crushing a three-run triple, giving the Kings a 4-2 advantage. Carney later found his way home on the second wild pitch of the inning. Daniels rediscovered the strike zone when he fanned Trey Carter to end the inning but the damage was done as the Miners went to the third down 5-2.
The inning erased what was a strong start on offense for the hosts.
In the prior frame cleanup hitter Chris Iazaetta got things rolling with a two-run homer over the fence in right-center that established the Miners’ lead. Unfortunately the offensive fireworks for the hosts were largely limited moving forward.
Champion City added two more runs in the third after an error at second base allowed the leadoff hitter to reach, but the Miners couldn’t answer. After stranding 10 runners on Thursday they stranded 12 in Saturday’s loss.
“That’s pretty much a good thing because our bats will come around,” Epling said. “Our bats will come around. Some of these hitters have been away for a couple of weeks and so if you take a look the pitching’s been pretty good in the league so far. You’re looking anywhere from 88 to 92 (miles per hour) and our guys are throwing 91 to 93 right now. And so that’s not a bad thing. It’ll take care of itself.
“We’ve just got to get our players in. We’ve got about seven or eight players that aren’t even here yet and when we start cleaning that up it’s going to be a lot better I think. ”
The Miners were able to tack on runs in the sixth and seventh innings to claw back into it, but stranded four total in both innings – two in scoring position in the seventh. Especially painful was the fact the final out in the seventh came with the bases loaded.
Mac Danford made a bolt from third to home after a wild pitch bounced to the backstop but Kings catcher Dallen Leach caught the ball on the carom and fired home to erase the runner at the plate, ending the inning.
Champion City added two more insurance runs in the ninth but they proved unnecessary as the Miners couldn’t chip away any further.
The Miners drop to 0-2 and will host Champion City on Sunday in the second game of a two-game series. First pitch is set for 6:35 p.m.
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