Black Bears stay perfect in July with 4-2 win over Keys
Jul. 6—GRANVILLE — Since flipping the calendar over to July, the West Virginia Black Bears haven't known defeat. Recovered from a 1-10 start of the season, West Virginia is undefeated in July, moving to a perfect 5-0 in the month with a 4-2 victory over the Frederick Keys that boosted their season record to 15-13.
The Black Bear's Jeremy Cook earned the win with a stout showing at Mon County Ballpark on Tuesday, going four innings and allowing two runs on five hits, striking out two and walking one. After the game his ERA stands at 3.75.
For the Keys, Jonathan Pintaro — who came into the contest with a team-best 0.53 ERA in 17 innings — was saddled with the loss following a tough three innings where he allowed four runs on four hits, striking out one, walking three and plunking two batters.
Cook and Pintaro both made short work of their opening innings, giving up one single apiece in a scoreless first inning.
Frederick struck first with Anthony Herron Jr. slicing a one-out single up the middle to score Carlos Guzman. Cook kept his cool, inducing a weak groundout and striking out Daniel Figueroa to put a lid on the Keys' offense.
The Bears got busy in their turn at bat in the second inning. First baseman Marek Chlup started the inning with a scorching single up the middle — so far in his three games played this month, the 23 year-old from the Czech Republic has already piled up 4-plus however many hits.
Chlup drew a couple of pickoff attempts from Frederick pitcher Jonathan Pintaro — both were errant throws, and Chlup advanced after the second one. Kyle Hess blasted a ball straight down into the dirt, and the bounce traveled so high that he easily made it to first, while Chlup took third.
A sacrifice fly from Sam Antonacci concluded Chlup's odyssey around the bases, and tied the game at one. Daunte Stewart slapped a single up the middle to put runners on the corners.
A 5-3 groundout put West Virginia in jeopardy of squandering two base runners, but the Bears didn't panic. Ben Greer walked in four pitches, loading the bases, and Caeden Trenkle did his part by taking a pitch to the knee, scoring Hess. Blaze Brothers was likewise hit by a pitch, and Stuart scored. Both Trenkle and Brothers worked full counts before being hit.
Hunter May, the hero of the Bears' Fourth of July victory with two home runs in that 8-4 series opening win, walked in a run in four pitches. Chlup came back up and flew out to end the second. By inning's end, West Virginia's four-run inning came by a trio of pairs — two singles, two walks, and two hit-by-pitches.
Frederick struck back quickly in the third. Shortstop Harold Coll golfed a solo home run to left field to bring the Keys within two, but leaving the park proved to be the only avenue of offense for Frederick from there on out. West Virginia's played the field flawlessly, benefitting from their lights-out infield of Antonacci at shortstop, Stuart at second, Greer at third and Chlup at first.
Antonacci has shown off great range and a great arm at short all season, and came through Tuesday too, recording a putout and four assists on defense, and making plays from all angles without issue.
Each of West Virginia's fielders did their job against Frederick, going seven innings without an error as a team.
"I think we had a really good game today, flashed some leather," Blaze Brothers, who had two putouts from left field, said. "Made some really good plays yesterday and a lot of good plays today. Just got to keep it up, minimize the errors for our pitchers, and we'll be alright."
After Coll's homerun, neither side put any more runs on the board. West Virginia went to the bullpen starting in the fifth, with Turner Spoljaric, Branden Noriega, and Tommy Green each taking the pill for one inning, and none letting a run cross the plate.
The Bears quartet relied on the defense heavily, as tons of balls were put into play. As a staff, they registered four strikeouts and two walks.
"We work on [defense] a lot during our pre game routines," Antonacci said after the game. "Getting after it with ground balls and fly balls, so our pitchers are really comfortable pitching to contact. I think that's why they're doing so well right now is because they trust us and we trust them to throw strikes.
"At the end of the day they got the job done and we helped them do it, so it's a good day."
The Black Bears' four-run second inning was the result of patient play, and West Virginia managed the win despite totaling just seven hits as a team, one less than Frederick's eight. Mixing their patience with aggressiveness at the moment of opportunity has been a sticking point during this win-streak.
"We've been focusing on getting the head [of the bat] out on hitter's counts early," Brothers said. "Don't be late on fastballs — we've been hammering fastballs lately, so we've got to stick to that.
"And we're always looking to move up somewhere, move up to the next base, move on passed balls, look for any way to move to the next base. Stealing, errors, anything. That's been really helping us.
The Black Bears' five game win-streak will be tested tomorrow in the series finale against Frederick, at Monongalia County Ballpark at 6:35 p.m.
Reach Nick Henthorn at 304-367-2548, on Twitter @nfhenthorn_135 or by email at nhenthorn@timeswv.com.
